The Santa Barbara Foresters scored four runs in the second and never looked back en route to a 5-1 win over the Philippines Baseball Group in the home opener on Friday at Eddie Mathews Field.
The Foresters, who are slowly getting their full roster back from their college teams, have now kicked off the summer with a 4-1 record after playing their first four games of the year on the road.
“Our team has already established their identity. We play hard, we get two-out hits and we give 100% effort,” Santa Barbara manager Bill Pintard said.
“We’re really excited about the team’s identity and who they are. We’re different from last year already because they’re buying in, they’re playing hard, and they’re giving us effort every day.”
The pitching tandem of Aidan Keenan (Stanford), Josh Hyneman (Crowder CC), Zeke Adderley (Maryland Eastern Shore) and JD Goodcase (San Diego) combined to limit the Filipinos to one run on six hits while striking out 12.
“We got really good starting pitching. [Keenan] set a tempo and the other guys followed,” Pintard said.
The Foresters opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, sparked by a single from Brenton Clark (Arkansas) and a double off the top of the right-center field wall by Cole Chamberlain (Texas).
After a balk scored the first run, Sawyer Farr (Texas A&M) sliced a broken-bat RBI single into center field to make it a 2-0 lead.
Later in the inning, Easton Rulli (Central Arizona) scored on an error and Addison Klepsch (Auburn) came all the way around to score from second base on a wild pitch that kicked away from the Philippines catcher to extend the lead to 4-0.
“[The 4-run second inning] allows us to use some of the other guys. We were able to use two pitchers that haven’t pitched much, so that was good, that was key,” Pintard said.
Santa Barbara showcased its speed on the bases throughout the game, consistently manufacturing runs on the basepaths.
“We were aggressive,” Pintard said. “[Philippines starter Andres Perez] was quick to the plate but we still kept running. We got a couple of guys thrown out, but we were playing with house money at that time.”
Keenan finished off his outing in the third, ending with three scoreless innings of work while striking out seven batters.
The 4-0 score held until the top of the fifth, when the Philippines scored its lone run of the day on an RBI single off the bat of Westmont’s Gavin Vanderpool to cut the Forester lead to 4-1.
Santa Barbara got that run right back in the bottom of the fifth when Clark drove in Terrence Kiel (Texas A&M), who singled and stole two bases to get into scoring position.
After a scoreless sixth inning, Adderley, who graduated from Santa Barbara High yesterday, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to keep the Forester advantage at 5-1.
From there, Goodcase took over and worked around one base runner in each of his innings to close out the victory. Chamberlain put the cherry on top of the win by backpicking a runner at second base for the third out in the ninth.
“[Chamberlain] looked really good and he hit a little bit,” Pintard said. “I think that’s the best catching we’ve had for a while. It was a good performance.”
The Foresters will remain at home to host the San Diego Bombers on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Eddie Mathews Field.