The Santa Barbara Foresters pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Conejo Oaks on Tuesday at Ventura College.
After the two sides completed seven innings tied 2-2, Santa Barbara’s Kurt Ippolito (Central Christian) roped an RBI triple to score Jake DeSpain (Golden West College) to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth.
Trent Roach (Cal) then came in and tossed a scoreless eighth, and Lucien Wechsberg (Pepperdine) struck out the side in a perfect ninth inning to clinch the win.
The Oaks opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, and that 1-0 lead held until the top of the fourth when Nick Salmon (Oregon State) doubled in Chris Newstrom (Tennessee) to tie the game at 1-1.
Conejo answered back with a run to regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth, but the ‘Sters knotted things back up at 2-2 in the top of the fifth on a run-scoring single by Sawyer Farr (Texas A&M).
That score then held until the Foresters came through in the late stages to secure the road victory.
Jack Fowler (Pepperdine) started on the bump for Santa Barbara, allowing one run and striking out six batters in three innings of work.
After Noah Waldeck (Saint Mary’s) allowed an unearned run in the fourth, Luke Cornelison (Arkansas) came on and delivered three one-hit innings and five strikeouts before turning the ball over to Roach.
The Foresters (8-1) will take on the Philippines Baseball Group on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Eddie Mathews Field.