And then there was one. For all the marbles. It comes down to this.
Choose one of the above and it applies to the Santa Barbara Foresters and their quest for a state title, as they split a pair of games Saturday in a best-of-three series with the Healdsburg Prune Packers – winning the opener, 8-5, and falling in the nightcap, 9-5.
The teams will face off in a winner-take-all game at noon today in Thousand Oaks.
“It was awesome,” Foresters manager Bill Pintard said. “We have a chance to win the state title today. That’s all we can ask for.”
The Foresters (32-10) ran out to a 4-0 lead in the opener – with Jacob Katfey providing a two-out, two-run single – only to see the Packers run off five innings in the sixth inning to take the lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Santa Barbara scored four times, with Jacob Burton, Clayton Better and Elijah Trest tossing three shutout innings to close things out.
“Burton was outstanding, Beeter worked through his inning and Trest really shut things down,” Pintard said.
In the nightcap, the Foresters were done in by seven walks by starter Brooks Fuller, although he did not factor into the decision.
After falling behind 5-1, the Foresters rallied to tie the game at 5, only to see the Packers score four times in the bottom of the eighth.
The Foresters will “bullpen” today’s game after playing five games over the past five days.
Follow all the action on AM1290 or via newspress.com
