The Santa Barbara Foresters are one of the most decorated teams in the history of the National Baseball Conference.
However, the 10-time NBC World Series champion Foresters have fallen short of their championship goal in each of the last three summers, the longest drought since the team won its first title in 2006.
Santa Barbara’s quest for that elusive 11th NBC World Series ring will begin on Friday in Wichita, Kansas, as they kick off the 91st edition of the World Series.
“We’re feeling amazing. We’re a pretty tight group and everything together, there’s a lot of love,” SBCC standout and Forester first baseman Wylan Nelson said.
“Everyone has kind of come together really quick, even with guys coming in late in the season. We just have an awesome group and great coaching staff… We just have to go out [to Wichita] and play ‘Ster baseball.”
The Foresters’ first game of the World Series will be a pool play contest against the Great Bend Bat Cats of the Jayhawk League in Kansas. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST with the livestream available on the NBC World Series YouTube page.
Their next game will come at midnight local time (10 p.m. PST) late Saturday night and early Sunday morning against the BTL Hornets from Kansas City. The ‘Sters round out pool play against the Liberal Bee Jays of Colorado on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. PST.
If the Foresters finish in the top three teams of their pool, they will advance to a single-elimination bracket beginning on Wednesday. The championship game is set for Saturday, August 1st at 5 p.m. PST.
Santa Barbara will head into the World Series fresh off one of its best regular season performances in recent history, going 26-6-1 and capturing the California Collegiate League South Division championship.
“It’s been a great summer,” Santa Barbara manager Bill Pintard said. “We started (playing well) right from the beginning and we were able to establish the way we play. We steal bases. We go first to third, we press and we rolled all summer.”
The Forester offense will look to carry over its success from the regular season, when it averaged a whopping nine runs per game across June and July. When asked what gives this team a chance at a World Series title, Pintard responded, “the strength of the offense.”
“We’re 15 deep on guys that can hit. There’s not one guy that can’t hit a home run in this lineup.”
In fact, the Foresters hit an impressive .296 per game to lead the CCL by a wide margin. They also ended the regular season with 22 home runs and 101 extra-base hits in 33 games played.
While the bats come into the tournament sizzling, the Santa Barbara pitching staff will have to be tweaked a bit heading into the World Series thanks to the MLB Draft.
Former UCSB pitchers Calvin Proskey and AJ Krodel were big arms for the Foresters for the majority of the summer, but they were drafted by the Reds and Mets, respectively, and are now with their new organizations.
Despite the Gauchos joining the professional ranks, the Foresters still boast an impressive stable of arms that have been heavily used throughout the summer.
The Santa Barbara pitching staff ended the regular season with a 2.79 team ERA, including 359 strikeouts in 294 total innings.
For more information on the tournament, including a full list of teams in the field, visit https://nbcbaseball.com/tournament-central-2026/.
