Gold Sox chop Foresters
The Santa Barbara Foresters may have the toughest pitching staff in the California Collegiate League, but that didn't phase the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox on Saturday night in Marysville.
The Gold Sox mustered just two hits and were shut out the night before but clubbed 12 and rattled the Foresters in an 8-6 win during the second of a crucial three-game series.
Yuba-Sutter (29-9, 12-6) now trails first-place Santa Barbara (29-9, 11-3) by a game in league play for the top spot.
“I don't think they think we can swing it as good as we can,” Gold Sox third baseman Brennan Garr said.
Garr certainly didn't have any trouble in that area.
Garr rocked Santa Barbara starter Tim Schoeninger for a two-run homer in the first inning with R.C. Dickerson aboard. Garr's blast sailed into the netting above the left field wall, to the right of the Raley's-Bel Air handle. He finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs, knocking home a run in the Gold Sox' four-run second.
Schoeninger (5-1), a sophomore righty from University of Nebraska, lasted 1 2/3 innings, taking his first loss of the year. He gave up six hits and six runs.
Gold Sox starter Nick Waechter improved his record to 4-0 with the win and was starting his first game since throwing a no-hitter July 7 in Salinas. He pitched five innings, allowing nine hits, five runs - four earned - while fanning four, walking two and hitting four.
Wes Porter earned his third save, pitching four innings. He allowed an earned run on four hits, struck out two and walked one. Porter pitched out of two bases-loaded jams, in the sixth and seventh innings.
Garr's shot may have been the start to Schoeninger's collapse.
“The first pitch he threw me, I took, to get my timing down and he threw the same thing on the third,” Garr said about his home run.
The Gold Sox used the four-run second to take a commanding 6-0 lead, shocking Santa Barbara.
“I didn't think it was going to be like this,” Garr said. “They are the toughest in the league.”
Ryan Angel scored first after Dickerson's single to left, and Mark Steinbeck came home after Garr slapped another single into left.
Cameron Shick ripped a full-count pitch off the Wheeler sign in right field, plating Dickerson and Garr for the six-run lead.
The Foresters touched Waechter for four runs in the fourth, cutting the Gold Sox lead to two, 6-4.
The Gold Sox stretched the lead to four, 8-4, after scoring two more in the bottom of the fifth. A.J. Valentine poked a single to right, scoring Shick, who punched a ball to right-center. Steinbeck later walked with the bases loaded to score Jason Searle.
Santa Barbara snuck back up on the Gold Sox with a run in the sixth and one in the seventh.
However, the Gold Sox went up three, 9-6, after Steinbeck scored on a wild pitch in the eighth.
Santa Barbara manager Bill Pintard was ejected in the seventh by home plate umpire Jose Duran for arguing balls and strikes.
Appeal-Democrat reporter Justin Miller can be reached at 743-0512. You may e-mail him at justin_miller@link.freedom.com.
