The Santa Barbara Foresters are one of the most successful summer baseball programs ever, winning a historic 10 NBC World Series titles over the years, the most all-time.
However, they have not won an NBC Championship since 2022, marking the first time since the 2009-10 seasons that the program has not won a title in two seasons.
NBC World Series Hall of Famer Bill Pintard is returning as head coach for his 31st season at the helm, and he has a wealth of Division I talent behind him as the team looks to reach the mountaintop once again.
“I’d be lying to tell you if it wasn’t focused,” Pintard said of the program’s mindset heading into this season. “[A World Series] is our goal. Our goal is not to get to the semifinals. I also work for the Yankees, and with the Yankees, if you don’t get to the World Series, it’s a bad year.
“Last year, we got to the quarterfinals and we lost by one run. Not a good year. We weren’t happy. The year before, we lost in the championship game. We have high goals and we’ve got good players.”
Pintard and the Foresters will begin their quest for an 11th NBC World Series title on Friday, June 6, against the OC Riptide in Irvine. The team’s home opener will be on Friday, June 13 at 4:30 p.m. against the Fillipinos at Eddie Mathews Field.
Most home games will start at 4:30 p.m. throughout the summer, while the Sunday games will have a first pitch time of 2 p.m. Tickets are sold at the gate and are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and $3 for children ages 12 or younger.
While the season is about to get underway, the Foresters are still in search of host families for the summer. Families who host Forester players are given free season tickets and invited to the organization’s Hall of Fame Banquet.
For more information regarding becoming a host family, visit sbforesters.org or contact the organization’s office at (805) 684-0657.
The Road to Wichita
The Foresters are a member of the MLB-affiliated California Collegiate League, a league that they have won over 20 times.
While Santa Barbara has been a dominating force in the league for years, the rest of the competition is quickly rising to its talent and competitiveness level.
“The parity in our league has really gone up,” Pintard said. “Because we have won, we have a target on our back. We face everybody’s number one. We don’t stack our pitching around that.
“They stack and they’ll move their guys around to throw their best pitching at us. So we see the best pitching in the league every night except for our pitchers, but our pitchers are pretty good.”
The Foresters will clash with their rival San Luis Obispo Blues along with the Orange County Riptide and Conejo Oaks, who also feature plenty of talent.
“The Blues really handed it to us last year. We didn’t have a lot of success,” Pintard said. “They have a really good team, and it’s a really tough place to play because we’re playing in front of 1,200 people. They pack that place.”
Santa Barbara will have plenty of talent of its own from high-level college programs from across the nation, including Super Regional competitors Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee and UTSA.
While the talent will go a long way in the team’s success, Pinard stresses the importance of dedication and effort in winning games throughout the summer season.
“My opening day speech is ‘You’re not gonna catch every ground ball. You’re not gonna hit every pitch. You’re gonna strike out. You’re gonna make errors. You’re not always gonna come through with a clutch hit. But there’s one thing that you can always do, and you can bring it every day, and that’s effort,’” Pintard said.
“We understand errors, we understand stuff like that, but if we don’t see effort, and we don’t see you playing the game the right way, you’re not gonna play here.
“We want them to have fun playing the game, but winning is important. Winning is the end result of how you play the game. We’re process-oriented, but winning shows you how well you did the process.”
Another Season at Eddie Mathews Field
After making the move to Santa Barbara High’s Eddie Mathews Field for the 2024 season, the Foresters will remain at the home of the Dons this summer.
While Pershing Park, the home of Santa Barbara City College baseball, had hosted the team for years before last year, the current field conditions have worsened and are not suitable to host them anymore.
“They haven’t done any improvements and they need to do improvements. They need to do something about the outfield,” Pintard said. “It’s probably five hours of setup and takedown at Pershing and at Santa Barbara High, it’s maybe an hour, maybe two hours.
“We don’t have a big staff, we’re not a wealthy team and we’re community supported. We can’t pay for a lot of people to do that. It’s very expensive. Life’s expensive, and now baseball is more expensive, so we can’t hire people to do that like City College can. We don’t have the people to.
“The logistics of it all, [Santa Barbara High] is a lot easier for us, and to be honest, the playing surface at Santa Barbara High is really, really good.”
Pintard also believes that Eddie Mathews Field provides a dynamic environment for spectators, as the stands are close to the action given the shorter backstop.
“The fans are right on top of us,” Pintard said. “So if you want to go to a ball game and really experience top division one talent, [Eddie Mathews Field] is the place to be.
“We’re happy to be there. We’d love to go back to Pershing, but they’re going to have to make some improvements.”
Familiar Faces on the Diamond
Local baseball fans will recognize plenty of names up and down the Foresters’ roster this summer, with players from local high schools and colleges donning the blue and red.
Pintard drew from Isla Vista for a quartet of pitching arms, as Hudson Barrett, Donovann Jackson, AJ Krodel and Frank Camarillo will see time both as starters and out of the bullpen.
While Camarillo was the Santa Barbara ace last season, Barrett, Jackson and Krodel will look to make strong impacts in their first years as Foresters.
Meanwhile, Santa Barbara High’s Vince Gamberdella and Zeke Adderley will contribute early in the season, with Gamberdella coming back home after playing at UNLV this spring and Adderley just finishing up his high school career.
Santa Ynez High alum Jackson Cloud, who currently plays at Lewis-Clark State, will make his return to the mound for the Foresters this season.
San Marcos alum and current SBCC Vaquero Darren Orlando will also be on the pitching staff to begin the summer.