The Santa Barbara Foresters are one win away from capping off one of their best seasons in the organization’s history.
The ‘Sters blanked the Junction City Brigade by a score of 7-0 in the NBC World Series semifinals on Friday at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.
Santa Barbara, a record 10-time NBC champion, will now clash with either the Alaska Goldpanners or the Lonestar Baseball Club in the title game on Saturday at 5 p.m. PST at Equity Bank Park.
The Foresters also ended the regular season with a record of 26-6, one of their best in recent years, to win the California Collegiate League South Division championship.
Santa Barbara has not won an NBC World Series title since the summer of 2022, the longest drought since the organization’s first championship in 2006.
Friday’s semifinal showdown was a pitchers’ duel for the vast majority of the contest until the Forester bats came alive with five runs in the top of the ninth to pull away for good.
Tanner Grove (Cal) started for Santa Barbara and supplied five shutout frames, allowing five baserunners and striking out seven along the way.
The ‘Sters broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth when Nick Salmon (Oregon State) dribbled a ball back to the pitcher with the bases loaded, and Jackson Waggoner’s throw home was not in time as Carter Rutenbar (Arkansas) scored to make it 1-0.
The pitchers’ duel resumed, as three scoreless innings followed the first run of the contest. After his five innings, Grove handed the ball to lefty Jack Fowler (Pepperdine) and he picked up right where his teammate left off, firing back-to-back shutout innings to preserve the 1-0 lead.
The Foresters finally doubled their lead to 2-0 in the top of the eighth when Chris Newstrom (UCSB) singled home Rutenbar.
After Fowler cruised through a 1-2-3 bottom half, the Santa Barbara offense had one more chance for some insurance runs in the top of the ninth.
The Forester bats delivered on those insurance runs with their biggest inning of the day, sparked by a walk to Addison Klepsch (UC San Diego) and a hit by pitch taken by Sawyer Farr (Oklahoma).
Easton Moomau (Texas Rio Grande Valley), Brady Janusek (Baylor), Donovan Lasalle (Louisiana) and Rutenbar then rapped out four consecutive run-scoring hits to balloon the lead to 7-0.
Moomau, Janusek and Rutenbar all drove in one run with singles, while Lasalle supplied a two-run double.
Fowler then came on and put the cherry on top of the win, striking out two of his six total in a scoreless ninth. Fowler allowed just one hit in his four dominant innings of relief.
The Santa Barbara pitching staff has been in complete control all tournament long, allowing just two runs in 40 innings of work across five games.
They have also gotten the job done offensively, totaling 42 runs for an average of 8.4 runs per game.
