The Santa Barbara Foresters’ pitching and offense combined for a dominant 12-0 win over the Walnut Creek Crawdads on Friday at Pershing Park.
Starting pitcher Parker Smith was dominant on the mound for the Foresters, allowing just three baserunners in seven scoreless innings while striking out five. The offense backed up the righthander, collecting 13 total hits while capitalizing on four errors by the Crawdads.
The first 4 ½ innings were quiet, as neither team was able to break the scoreless tie.
However, all that changed when the Santa Barbara offense put up six runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead and never look back. A combination of base hits, a pair of errors and a wild pitch in the inning gave the Foresters the 6-0 advantage.
The offense didn’t stop there as after a scoreless sixth inning, Santa Barbara tacked on four more runs in the seventh and wrapped up the scoring with two runs in the eighth to bring the lead to 12-0.
Left fielder Hunter Ensley paced the offense for the Foresters, going 4-for-5 with four RBIs. Meanwhile, Gavin Kash went 3-for-5 with three runs scored, Gianni Horvat went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored and Kevin Bazzell went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
On the pitching side, Jake Faherty and Nick Proctor backed up Smith’s dazzling outing with scoreless eighth and ninth innings of work to close out the win.
It was a needed win for the Foresters, who had lost two games in a row going into Friday. They now sit at 15-10 on the season, which is good for second place behind Conejo Oaks in the California Collegiate League South standings.
Santa Barbara will be back in action against Walnut Creek on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Pershing Park.