Fourth-year Forester and California Collegiate League Pitcher of the Year Chris Joyce will take the mound for the Santa Barbara Foresters tonight at 8 p.m. in the team’s opener in the National Baseball Congress World Series. The opponent is the Casa Grande (AZ) Cotton Kings, a team which is hard to find any information on.
“I don’t know anything about this team other than that they had a former Forester pitcher (Tim Crabbe) play for them a couple of years ago,” said manager Bill Pintard. “I know that they’re going to throw their best guy.”
Joyce is 5-0 on the season and opposing batters are hitting just .160 against him. The Foresters won the tournament in 2006 and 2008, and were recently dubber the “Evil Empire” of the CCL by Mike Scioscia of the Angels.
“I think he just says that to get a rise out of me. When we come to Wichita, I think people respect us and they also like us,” said Pintard.
Santa Barbara has picked up two new players in the past week to bolster the roster for the tournament. Catcher Chris Hannick of Sonoma State was the CCL’s top offensive catcher, and Oklahoma State-bound reliever Ian McCarthy, who played for the OC Pioneers this summer, will come out of the bullpen.
All games are broadcast on AM 1490 and sbforesters.org.
