Sam Stafford struck out 14 batters in seven innings, turning in perhaps his most dominant start of a dominant season, but it wasn’t enough for the Santa Barbara Foresters to prevent a late letdown in a 5-2 loss to the San Luis Obispo Blues on Saturday.
After snapping the Foresters’ 15-game winning streak on Friday, the Blues have now taken two straight at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium and trail the seven-time defending California Collegiate League champs by only two games in the standings with a week’s worth of games to play.
Santa Barbara (32-9, 22-7) committed three errors on the day, none bigger than a booted ball at second base with two outs in the top of the eighth. Instead of getting out of the inning with a 2-1 lead, the Foresters allowed four runs after the error and headed into the bottom half of the inning trailing 5-2. The first run scored when Rafael Neda singled on the very next pitch after the error, and Dylan Gavin followed soon after with a three-run blast to left field.
“We gave them life, and we didn’t put them away early when we had a chance… If we make a routine play there, we’re out of the inning,” said manager Bill Pintard.
But the error was preceded by a big offensive letdown early in the game. The Foresters had runners on second and third with one out in the first and couldn’t convert. In the second, they started out with four straight hits including doubles by Walker Moore and Patric Tolentino. That gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, but Blues starter Sean Yost settled down and struck out the next two before Shane Kroker was caught stealing.
“He could have folded his tent early after giving up a couple of runs against Stafford, but he made an adjustment in a meeting at the mound with [pitching coach Michael Lara], and that was huge,” said Blues manager Chal Fanning.
Yost allowed two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts through five innings, and Brock Duke came in to pitch a hitless three-and-two-thirds innings of relief.
Stafford’s 14 strikeouts in seven innings were actually on pace for what he’s done all season. He now has 48 Ks in 25 innings of work, having given up just one earned run and seven hits total.
“It’s a game, you know, and things happen like this,” said the University of Texas Longhorn. “I don’t think anybody on the team is really panicked. You’re not gonna win every game, and the Blues have a lot of talent on their side.”
Sunday’s 2 p.m. game is a big one, as a Blues (27-14, 21-10) win would put them within one game of the mighty Foresters. Fanning said it would be huge for his team to de-throne the Foresters and win the league title down the stretch.
“Tomorrow’s gonna be really huge. If you’re not on all cylinders tomorrow you’re missing something,” he said. “It would mean a lot, mainly for the respect of what the Foresters mean to Summer baseball, to the Central Coast and to this league. To have someone take that away from them would be huge for any organization, and we’ve talked about that.”
