Foresters Right the Ship With 12-7 Victory Over Ventura Pirates
The Foresters Begin a Crucial Stretch of Their Schedule on Thursday Against the Arroyo Seco Saints
Coming off a rare two-game losing streak the Foresters got back to their winning ways with a 12-7 victory over the Ventura Pirates on Wednesday.
The offensive explosion was a welcome sight for the Foresters as they were held to one run in each of the past two games. Rocco Garza-Gongora was one of many standouts at the plate for Santa Barbara as he finished with two hits and four runs batted in, including a bases clearing double in the bottom of the first inning that broke the game open.
“It’s a big win for us after two losses,” Garza-Gongora said. “It was just good to bounce back, find ourselves, find our hitting, find our pitching and eventually it will lead us to success later on.”
The Foresters have a shortage of pitchers at this point of the summer due to various forms of attrition, including injuries and manager Bill Pintard elected to go with a series of position players on the mound against the Pirates. The strategy was very effective.
Outfielder Gregory Pace started the game and flashed excellent velocity in two scoreless innings, Daniel Patteron followed with two scoreless innings and Garza-Gongora pitched one scoreless inning as the Foresters jumped out to a 12-0 lead.
“We’ve lost a lot of pitchers in the last two weeks due to the draft and injuries and the portal,” said Foresters head coach Bill Pintard. “Pace and Patterson do pitch for us, they have pitched in the past and then we kind of just went through the line and asked ‘who can pitch’? They did a really good job.”
In addition to Garza-Gongora’s excellence at the plate, Patterson, Max Belyeu and Pace also recorded multi-hit games.
“The last two games we scored two runs so the bats really got going and it was fun,” Pintard said. “We had it all going and we had it going early.”
The Pirates scored six runs off Foresters reliever Zach Bridger in the seventh and final inning , but the final outcome was never in doubt.
The Foresters have crucial California Collegiate League games against third-place Arroyo Seco and second place OC Riptide in the upcoming days and will need to be firing on all cylinders to solidify their spot atop the CCL standings.
