Sunday provided a forgettable close to the season’s opening series for the Santa Barbara Foresters, who fell to the visiting San Diego Waves 10-1 at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
“That’s gonna happen, you know, because some of these guys haven’t pitched in awhile. That’s baseball,” said manager Bill Pintard.
Six-foot-8 University of Nebraska pitcher Thomas Lemke got off to a rough start in his Forester debut, giving up five earned runs on seven hits in just three innings of work. He was followed by Patrick Brennan, who pitched two perfect innings before losing his mojo in the sixth when five runs came in before Santa Barbara could record an out.
“We got in a hole pitching. Lemke’s got good stuff, but his ball was up and we noticed it was up earlier… He couldn’t get it back down, and you can’t live upstairs,” said Pintard.
The Waves used 15 hits to avoid the sweep, while the Foresters mustered five. One of them was the first home run of the season — a solo shot by second-year first baseman James Wharton to lead off the seventh.
Defensively, the Foresters got a handful of highlight-reel plays. Matt Valaika made a great backhanded, spinning 4-3 put-out on an early ground ball, and center fielder Ryan Hawthorne made a diving catch for the first out of the fourth. The inning was ended on the best play of the day, as shortstop Jeff McNeil went back on a blooper over his head and laid out completely parallel to the outfield grass to make the catch.
Coleman Cox led the Waves with four base hits on the day.
The Foresters open California Collegiate League play on Tuesday with a 6 p.m. game in Compton against the Academy Barons. All games are broadcast on AM 1490 and www.sbforesters.org.
