Chris Joyce has played for the Santa Barbara Foresters for four years, but he’s been around the team since he was a six-year-old.
How fitting it was that the local lefty went out and pitched a gem for the team in a 2-0 victory over the Conejo Oaks in front of a big crowd at the Fourth of July game at Pershing Park. Joyce, recently drafted by the Detroit Tigers, didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and pitched his way out of tight spots through seven innings of three-hit ball.
Foresters starting pitcher Chris Joyce
“I was working around my fastball to start and then the curveball started working a little later in the game,” said Joyce, a graduate of Dos Pueblos High. “It was awesome for us to come out here as a team and represent ourselves to the community like this. I’m proud of the whole team.”
The only two runs of the afternoon were driven in by Jeff McVaney, whose family has been in town from Houston to watch him play. With two outs and two on in the fourth, McVaney hit an opposite-field single that drove in Nick Melino and Jeremy Rathjen, who both singled behind him.
Joyce was the benefactor of three inning-ending double plays, and also picked up a huge strikeout with runners on second and third in the top of the fourth. With Kyle Jones on third and Chris Hannick at second, Joyce struck out Notre Dame slugger David Casey — last year’s California Collegiate League batting champion — on a 2-2 count. McVaney and the offense promptly broke through in the bottom half of the frame.
Bryce Uhrig, a former Santa Barbara High and SBCC ace, came on to get the first two outs in the eighth before Ryan Hawthorne came in for match-up purposes and ended the inning. Cody Martin struck out the first two batters he faced in the ninth but gave up a single to Matt Scioscia, allowing Lance Roenicke to come to the plate representing the tying run. Martin struck out Roenicke to shut the door.
The Foresters are now 19-7 overall and 13-5 in the California Collegiate League, while Conejo drops to 11-19, 8-16. Santa Barbara hosts Team Vegas at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
