Newstrom's Big Day Guides Foresters in Blowout

It was another big day with the bats for the Santa Barbara Foresters, who beat the Conejo Oaks 13-5 at Ventura College. This was the Foresters' fourth win in four tries against the Oaks this season, and extended their lead atop the CCL South.

Santa Barbara broke the ice in this one, batting around in the third. Carter Rutenbar drove in the first with a single before Landon Schaefer scored easily on a wild pitch. Chris Newstrom and Luke Cornelison both double-dipped, each bringing home two to give the Foresters a six-run advantage.

'Sters starter Tanner Grove worked around trouble in the second and third, escaping two baserunners in each while adding three strikeouts. This let Santa Barbara tack on another in the fourth, with Kurt Ippolito bringing run number seven home on his groundout. Grove found his groove come his half of the fourth, sitting down the Oaks in order with two Ks.

Joey Wittig was first out for the Foresters and was immediately granted another run. Marcus Greis led off the sixth with a single before stealing second. He eventually found third before Ippolito drove him in on a sac fly, his second RBI of the game. Conejo finally struck in their half of the sixth with a pair of singles and a wild pitch, letting a groundout get them on the board.

It was another explosive inning for Santa Barbara in the eighth, as they added four to get into double digits for the second time in as many days. Three free passes left them loaded for Wylan Nelson, who plated two on a double before Newstrom did the exact same, getting him his third and fourth RBIs on the evening.

While Conejo added two of their own in the eighth, it was not to the fault of Caleb Hoover, who replaced Wittig in the seventh. In his two innings of work, Hoover punched out three and only saw three hits to his name. Although two runs were charged to him, neither was earned as an error in the outfield gave the Oaks the plate.

The Oaks scored twice more in the ninth off of Lucien Wechsburg, but it wasn't nearly enough to catch up to the onslaught from the earlier Forester innings.

The 'Sters are on the road once more tomorrow to play the MLB Academy Barons at 6:05 before celebrating Independence Day at the CCL All-Star Game. Catch all the action on the Foresters YouTube channel.