The Santa Barbara Foresters square off against the Seattle Studs today (Thu., Aug. 12) at 6:30 p.m. (California time) in the semifinals of the 76th National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series at Wichita, Kansas. The winner will advance to the championship game Friday at 5 p.m. The other semifinalists are the Liberal (Kan.) Bee Jays and Denver Cougars.
Santa Barbara split a pair of games against Seattle in June at UCSB. The two teams met in the 2008 NBC championship game, and the Foresters won 2-0 to claim their second national title.
The Foresters (45-10) have won 14 of their last 15 games, losing only in the third round of the NBC tournament to the Liberal Bee Jays. After that defeat, they had to survive three elimination games to reach the final four.
Chris Joyce (6-0) will be Santa Barbara’s starting pitcher tonight. The lefthander has had a week’s rest since the Foresters’ 9-0 victory over Casa Grande (Ariz.) in their tournament opener.
The Foresters’ games will be broadcast on AM 1490 in Santa Barbara. A spokesman for Cox Community 8 said the station intends to show a taped telecast of the championship game at a future date if the Foresters are involved.