Magic was in the air for the Santa Barbara Foresters at Pershing Park on Thursday.
Sean Youngerman and Hunter Watkins combined to throw a no-hitter and lead the Foresters to a 4-0 win over the Arroyo Seco Saints.
It is the fifth no-hitter in Foresters history, with the last one coming during the 2o2o NBC World Series.
Youngerman, who plays at Westmont College, started the game and allowed three baserunners on walks in six innings of work while striking out four.
Then, head coach Bill Pintard opted to go with Watkins for the final three innings and it worked out, as the Grand Canyon University rising freshman tossed three perfect innings and struck out five to clinch the win and the no-hitter.
“Nobody said a word about it,” Pintard said of the no-hitter. “They were all locked in and it was sweet.”
The arms of Youngerman and Watkins got plenty of help from their teammates, both offensively and defensively.
With the bats, all four of the Forester runs came on a pair of two-run home runs.
Jalin Flores of the University of Texas got the scoring started in the bottom of the third with a line drive shot over the left-field fence, grabbing the early 2-0 lead.
Neither team cracked the scoreboard again until the bottom of the eighth, when Westmont College’s Daniel Patterson blasted a towering two-run homer to left field to add onto the lead at 4-0.
“The two home runs were big for us,” Watkins said. “They kept the mojo going and the energy up in the dugout.”
While the homers from Flores and Patterson played a big role in the win, it was Santa Barbara’s defensive efforts that kept the no-hitter alive.
In the top of the seventh inning, a Saint hit a bouncing ground ball up the middle of the infield that seemed to have eyes for the outfield. However, Flores came flying in from his shortstop position and made a running throw to get the runner in time.
“We made some big plays in the field, and that play by Jaden in the seventh inning up the middle was unreal,” Pintard said.
On top of Flores’ gem in the seventh, the Foresters played an errorless game in the field. Behind the plate, Nate Voss caught all nine no-hit innings.
“If I didn’t have that defense behind me tonight with guys making big plays, [the no-hitter] doesn’t happen,” Youngerman said. “We couldn’t have done it without the work from Voss behind the plate either, he grinded back there for all nine innings.
“Not enough can be said about the guys behind us and our catcher that we were throwing to the whole game.”
With this impressive win, the Foresters move to 19-8 in CCL play and remain in first place while the Saints drop to 15-13 and sit in third place.
Santa Barbara will be back at Pershing Park to begin a crucial three-game set against the second-place OC Riptide on Friday at 6 p.m.