SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Orange County Riptide soundly defeated the No. 1 Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League 7-3 at Eddie Mathews Field Wednesday afternoon.
Starting pitcher Michael Erspamer (Stanford U) allowed three hits and two runs in five innings pitched Wednesday.
(Photo courtesy of Joey Gray)
Starting pitcher Michael Erspamer (Stanford University) pitched five innings and earned his third win of the summer, and reliever Trey Telfer (Indiana University) picked up his first save of the summer Wednesday. Two earned runs were scored by the Foresters in the bottom of the third inning, while one unearned run came across in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Telfer, who entered the game in the bottom of the sixth inning and retired seven straight batters, said he was focused on “trying to compete and attack those guys every pitch,” and “going out there and being consistent and fired up for the boys, giving them a chance to further the lead.”
In the top of the first inning, the Riptide cycled through their lineup of nine batters and produced three hits and four runs. With two outs, Jake Lambdin (Duke University) singled and then made his way to third by way of a pair of stolen bases before he scored on an error by the Foresters catcher.
Following Lambdin’s at-bat, Carter Danz (Northwestern University) battled through a 10-pitch at-bat, in which he ended up drawing a walk. Grant MacArthur (University of Connecticut) was also issued a walk, and Luke Johnson (Cornell University) was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Reid Montgomery (California State University, Long Beach), who delivered a two-RBI single. The next batter up, Jimmy Zakhar, singled to score Johnson and put the Riptide up 4-0 at the end of the top of the first inning.
After the Riptide drew three straight walks to load the bases and start the top of the second inning, Jonathan Rodriguez (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) scored from third base on a wild pitch. Danz was issued a walk to reload the bases, but the Riptide were unable to capitalize in the rest of the inning.
The Riptide capped off their scoring in the top of the sixth inning, in which a two-RBI double from Danz scored Bradley Navarro (University of Utah) and Lambdin.
“They [the Foresters] are a good team. They play the game well. They don’t give many freebies. They play solid baseball,” said Head Coach Bryan Evans. “Coming in here and getting a win is definitely a good feeling.”
The Riptide will look for their third straight win when they face the San Diego Bombers on Thursday, July 3 at Great Park at 7 p.m.
