THOUSAND OAKS — The Santa Barbara Foresters need just one more win to wrap up their eighth consecutive California Collegiate League title after a 4-3 victory over the Conejo Oaks on Tuesday.
Overcoming three errors, the Foresters held on as Cody Martin picked up a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to pick up his tenth save of the season. The team record is 11, held by John Gonzales (2003) and Joey Cutler (2008.)
Santa Barbara (35-9, 24-7) scored early, getting two runs on an opposite-field triple by Jeff McVaney in the first. Walker Moore then drove in McVaney on a single that made it 3-0. The Oaks (20-25, 12-19) responded with a run on the first Forester error in the bottom half of the inning.
Michael Ratterree tripled to open the second inning and Tyler Marmion drove him in on a fly ball to left field. Marmion, a shortstop out of San Jose State coming off of Tommy John surgery early this year, came out of the game early and gave way to Jeff McNiel at shortstop. McNiel, a recent graduate of Nipomo High School, didn’t play high school baseball until this past season and was so impressive that he earned a scholarship to Long Beach State. He had two bunt singles and a walk in the game.
Another Santa Barbara error allowed Ryon Healy to reach base in the fourth and Matt Scioscia drove him in on a single. The Oaks put up one more in the sixth but the Foresters bullpen held on to the lead.
With the team already qualified for next week’s National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, manager Bill Pintard said his players are managing to stay focused enough down the stretch in the regular season.
“We pitched well today. We were sloppy on defense and didn’t get some RBIs when we could have. I think we’re tired and kind of lose focus, but it’s not that bad,” he said.
Santa Barbara hosts the Oaks at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
