SAN LUIS OBISPO — Five errors and just four hits doomed the Santa Barbara Foresters on Thursday night, as they lost to the rival San Luis Obispo Blues for the second straight night. Despite loading the bases to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the top of the ninth, the 8-time defending California Collegiate League champs fell 4-1.
Santa Barbara now leads SLO by just a half game in the CCL standings heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
“Tonight was just a poor effort all the way around — mental mistakes, physical mistakes and not being able to make adjustments,” said manager Bill Pintard.
Blues pitcher Harmen Sidhu (Oregon State) was stellar in his first start of the season, pitching eight innings and giving up no earned runs on just two hits. The only Foresters run scored in the first inning on an RBI single by McVaney that scored Derek Legg, who had reached on an error.
SLO (28-11, 19-10) responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, as a leadoff single off of starter Austin Kubitza was followed by a pair of two-out singles and a walk to make it 2-1.
The Foresters went down in order, which they would end up doing six times in the game, in the second as Sidhu picked up the first two of his eighth strikeouts. The Blues scored their final two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Jo Jo Sharrar led off with a double and reached third base on an error in left field by Jeff McVaney. Dylan Gavin then hit a single to score Sharrar, and was granted second base on a throwing error by shortstop Christian Summers.
One out later, Tanner Witt would single, putting Gavin at third base. Witt broke for second on a successful steal attempt, and as catcher Tyler Pearson’s throw went down to second, Gavin came home for the final run of the game.
Ian McCarthy struck out six batters in three innings of relief for the Foresters, but Pinard expressed concern that he walked the first batter of his outing for the fifth straight time.
McVaney, meanwhile, stretched his hitting streak to a whopping 16 games and remains high atop the conference standings with a .450 average.
We just have to turn the page and get ready to play tomorrow… But I do want them to get the message that they can’t just go through the motions and win. Those days are over in this league,” said Pintard.
The Foresters (29-10, 20-10) play at Glendale Friday with a 6:30 p.m. start time.
