The Santa Barbara Foresters were handed their first loss of the summer in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Orange County Riptide on Thursday at Eddie Mathews Field.
The Forester quartet of pitchers combined to strike out 14 batters, but the Santa Barbara (4-1) offense struggled to string together hits against Orange County’s (6-1) pitchers throughout the day en route to the loss.
“We’ve been having a good offense going, but today, [Orange County] shut it down. They did a good job pitching. They threw three lefties on us and a right-hander, and they were tough.” Santa Barbara Foresters manager Bill Pintard said.
Forester right-hander Zane Burns (Oklahoma State) and Orange County lefty Sammy Cova were in control early, as they each cruised through two hitless frames to begin the game.
The Riptide put together the first rally of the day with a pair of two-out walks in the third, but catcher Zane Becker got the ‘Sters out of the jam by throwing out the runner at second in a double-steal attempt.
Santa Barbara recorded the first hit of the day in the bottom of the third courtesy of an infield single by Landon Schaefer (Arkansas), but he was ultimately stranded at second base to preserve the 0-0 tie.
Burns finished off his outing by working around a leadoff error in the fourth and getting three straight groundouts. He ended his day with three strikeouts in four hitless innings.
“[Burns] was good. He had a couple of two-out walks, so we’ll try to clean that up, but he looked pretty good,” Pintard said.
The Foresters finally broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth with some small ball. After Addison Klepsch (UC San Diego) led off with a double, he advanced to third on a wild pitch and came in to score on a safety squeeze bunt by Marcus Gries (TCU) to take a 1-0 lead.
“The small ball game has been working for us really well,” Pintard said.
Will Jordan (Texas Tech), who entered the game in the fifth, secured the shutdown inning in the top of the sixth by striking out the side.
However, the Foresters couldn’t continue the momentum as they were set down in order in the sixth, and the Riptide offense woke up in the seventh.
The inning began with a Forester error, and that baserunner made his way into scoring position on a single and a passed ball that put runners on second and third with one out.
A few pitches after the passed ball, another pitch from Luke Cornelison (Arkansas) got away from catcher Liam Wilson (Harvard) and brought the tying run in to score.
The Riptide then brought home its second runner in scoring position on a single to take a 2-1 advantage.
“When Cornelson came in, our catcher couldn’t catch him, and that’ll happen early in the season because they’ve never seen each other. Those passed balls hurt us,” Pintard said.
“There were some plays in that [seventh inning] that probably should have been made. We’ve been playing crisp baseball, and crisp defensively. We need to clean it up.”
The Foresters were once again set down in order in the seventh, but Cornelison bounced back by striking out the side in the top of the eighth to keep the deficit at one.
It was another 1-2-3 frame for the Santa Barbara offense in the bottom of the eighth before Noah Waldeck (Saint Mary’s) came in for the ninth and struck out a pair in his scoreless inning. Waldeck’s two strikeouts brought the team total to 14.
“Our guys pitched well enough to win. I thought they pitched really well,” Pintard said.
After a leadoff flyout in the bottom of the ninth, Kurt Ippolito (Central Christian) walked to get the tying run on base. However, the Forester offense came up short one last time with a strikeout and a groundout to give the Riptide the victory.
Santa Barbara will continue its homestand against the Conejo Oaks on Friday at 4:30 p.m. back at Eddie Mathews Field.