SANTA BARBARA – The Orange County Riptide won a crucial pitching dual, 2-1, on Thursday night against the Santa Barbara Foresters at Santa Barbara High School.
The two squads entered the game with a combined 9-1 record, led by top-3 pitching staffs in the California Collegiate League. Combined, the Riptide and Foresters post an ERA of 2.06 – and it showed. There were five 1-2-3 frames and 22 strikeouts altogether.
Starting pitcher Sammy Cova dominated for the Riptide, going four scoreless innings while only surrendering one walk and one hit. Cova’s outing is the new longest for the Riptide this year as well.
“We knew they were a great team coming in. They’ve got a great team, they’re really talented,” said Cova. “I got ahead of guys…It was the first time i’ve thrown a cutter in-game in a long time. I brought it back and it worked really well.”
The Riptide offense struggled against the league-leading Forester pitchers. However, head coach Bryan Evans saw it as a necessary learning opportunity against pitchers who throw some real heat.
“We did enough offensively,” said Evans. “This is the first time we’ve seen 95 – and so, we’re trying to get our timing back.”
OCR only needed two runs to secure the win – both of which came in the seventh inning.
Travis Curry led off and reached on an error. Shortly after, Slater Nunez hit a single. The pair then advanced to second and third after a wild pitch. Curry then scored on a second wild pitch to knot the game up at one apiece.
Alex Dolan then singled up the middle to bring in Nunez, making it 2-1.
Now with a small lead, the back end of the Riptide bullpen closed out the game in dominant fashion.
Jackson Pace threw 2.1 scoreless innings and struck out two in the process. Pace didn’t allow a single runner either.
Jack Wade came in to close out the game and immediately faced the top of the Foresters’ lineup. Nevertheless, Wade threw two scoreless innings while striking out three.
“Biggest thing for me was to attack,” said Wade. “We were looking to punch somebody in the mouth. I felt like we went toe-to-toe with them and we came out on top.”
The Riptide, now 6-1, return to the OC Great Park for their fourth matchup this season with the San Diego Bombers on Friday night.
First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
