The Santa Barbara Foresters are hitting their stride at the perfect time.
The ‘Sters rounded out pool play at the NBC World Series with a 7-2 victory over the Liberal Bee Jays of Kansas on Tuesday night at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.
Santa Barbara will begin single-elimination bracket play on Wednesday, with the opponent and first-pitch time to be determined.
The Foresters have outscored their opponents 28-2 in three pool play contests and, dating back to the end of the regular season, have won nine of their last 10 games.
After two scoreless frames to begin Tuesday’s game, the Santa Barbara bats woke up in the bottom of the third with a four-run inning to jump out in front 4-0.
The inning was highlighted by chaos on the base paths, as the first three runs came in to score on wild pitches and the final came across on a double steal by the Forester baserunners.
Santa Barbara starter Zane Burns (Oklahoma State) rounded out his outing with a fourth consecutive scoreless inning, ending with just one hit and one walk allowed to go along with four strikeouts.
The 4-0 lead held through the top of the sixth thanks to Jack Fowler (Pepperdine), who took over on the mound and fired two shutout innings and struck out two along the way.
Santa Barbara then extended its lead to 6-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Zane Becker (Texas A&M) and Carter Rutenbar (Arkansas) each roped run-scoring singles.
The Bee Jays plated their first run of the game in the top of the seventh, but it was quickly answered with a bases-loaded walk by Becker in the bottom half to bring the lead back to six runs at 7-1.
Liberal tacked on another run in the top of the eighth, but Luke Cornelison (Arkansas) came on for the Foresters in the ninth and slammed the door to finish off the 7-2 win.
Becker and Addison Klepsch (UC San Diego) paced the offensive attack with two hits and two runs scored apiece, while Becker drove in a pair.
Brady Janusek (Baylor), Nick Salmon (Oregon State), Chris Newstrom (UCSB) and Donovan Lasalle (Louisiana) all reached base multiple times as well.
