The Santa Barbara Foresters flexed their muscles and pounded out 15 hits, including four triples and home run, and outslugged the MLB Academy Barons 12-8 in a California Collegiate League game on Wednesday night at UCSB’s Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
Dillon Dobson, Reggie Southall, Grant Davis and Granger Studdard hammered triples and Jeremy Montalbano cracked a solo homer in the biggest offensive performance of the young baseball season for the Foresters (4-0, 2-0 in CCL). Dobson drove in four runs to lead the onslaught.
The teams combined for 27 hits.
The Foresters built a 4-0 lead after three innings. Jaylin Davis drove in Bret Boswell with a single for the first run, and Dobson tripled to score Boswell and Colin Yelich. Montalbano lined a single to center to bring in Dobson.
The Barons capitalized on three Forester errors and roared back to take a 7-4 lead in the fourth. They sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning, highlighted by DJ Wallace’s towering ground-rule double to straight away center and Chris Jacob’s two hits.
The lead didn’t last long as the Foresters struck back and tied the score. Studdard hit a scary line drive off of opposing pitcher Pedro Fierros’ leg that put him on first. After a walk and a sacrifice fly, Southall hit a two-run monster triple over the center fielder’s head. Southall scampered across home plate for the tying run on a passed-ball strikeout.
The Barons’ scored a single run in the top of the eighth innings after a triple by second basemen Casey Chenowith.
Santa Barbara answered with its third triple of the game, a blast by Davis, who later scored on a sacrifice fly by Dobson. Clean-up hitter Montalbano crushed a soaring solo home run over right field, his second on the year.
David Graybill closed out the slugfest for the Foresters. He replaced SBCC’s Lucas Benenati, who pitched a solid four innings, striking out six and limiting the Barons to one run and three hits. Benenati relieved starter Brock Larson.
