No Sweep For The Barons As The Foresters Win 13-1

On the third day, the brooms were without the strength to sweep even a small leaf with the torrential winds that the Santa Barbara Foresters offense unloaded on the Barons. The first batter of the game was Foresters Chase Yost and he came up with a triple. He was brought home by a groundout to short, and then the first homerun of the 3 game series was launched by James Wharton. Baron’s pitcher Brandon Godfrey was stung early, and despite having a clean 2^nd inning, the 3^rd was when his evening turned into a complete nightmare. He gave up four more runs including another homerun to James Wharton, but this time it was a two run shot. Wharton went 3 for 5, scored 3 runs, and drove in 5 runs. The pitching woes for the Barons continued when Daniel Heben stepped up on the mound and immediately turns over 6 runs in the 4^th inning. He didn’t exactly settle down in his next 2 innings, but at least he didn’t allow any more runs. The only good news coming from the Barons pitching department came in the name of Jason Dovel. He wrapped up the 7^th and 8^th innings pretty well by only giving a walk and couple of harmless singles. Dovel cringed a bit in the 9^th when he gave up a double to Jeff McVaney and then an RBI single to Ryan Hedge who’s currently a sophomore at Wichita State. It was an upsetting night for the Academy’s pitching for it showed some weakness, but the offense was just as dismal. Only one run was muscled through and it happened in the 3rd inning. Mac Tucker got on base by way of an infield hit and Rucky McKinley followed with one into right field. With Tucker standing on third base, Brett Vertigan pulled a one baser to right driving in Tucker. Other than that, the Barons were as dry as my radiator on a hot highway. The good thing is that we were able to see Caleb Hatcher get his first hit of the season. He’s only a freshman attending Cypress College, and he’s been visibly struggling at the plate. It’s clear that he’s built like a ball player, and once he matures and learns how to control his body, the awkwardness and fear will disappear. What he’ll do with that is still unclear. On the Forester side, a 16 year old catcher who still plays high school ball, is up hear banging out hits with the big boys. Riley Moore pinch hit in the 7^th inning and singled into center. He also got hit by a pitch in the 9^th as a lesson from the heavens and as an experience gainer from a game that will teach him how to suck it up. It was a great night for Tim Kelly. A junior at Wichita State pitching for the Foresters this summer, Kelly went for a solid 6 innings only scattering 4 hits, giving up a run, and striking out 7 hitters. It comes as no surprise, Kelly was an exceptional pitcher, he had an 11-2 record over in Wichita, and he had a 3.94 ERA, the 2^nd best in his team. Going the distance is not uncommon for him, he had 2 complete games, and one of them was a shutout last year. With the Foresters stellar pitching performance, they avoided being swept by a Baron team getting accustomed to waiting for the last minute to create comebacks. Tonight, by the score of 13-1, the Barons are re-grounded and snapped back into reality.

Adrian Nevarez