Santa Barbara Forresters
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
Mike Ford pitched a complete-game shutout to win his third game of the tournament and Andre Miller drove in both runs as the Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters shut out the Seattle (WA) Studs 2-0 to in the championship of the 74th National Baseball World Series.
The Foresters (7-0) won their second title in the past three years; like in 2006, Santa Barbara went undefeated in winning the title.
Santa Barbara was the top-hitting team in the tournament at .349, but was limited to four hits in this game. Miller had two of them, and they were the key one in the game: a leadoff homer in the fourth off starter Josh Berry, and a triple in the sixth off Seattle reliever Taylor Thompson that landed out of reach of the left fielder.
Ford did the rest, limiting the Studs (6-2) to five hits, and escaped a jam in the third when Seattle had runners with second and third with one out. But an infield out and a strikeout stopped the threat, and Seattle only had two other runners reach second base the rest of the way, one on a balk. Ford struck out nine, including the side in order in the ninth to close out the contest.
Cade Thompson went 2-for-2 for the Studs, whose second-place finish is its best. Berry took the loss, allowing both runs over 5 1/3 innings.
The game was in sharp contrast to the undefeated final Aug. 12, in which Seattle scored five in the first inning, but Santa Barbara responded with six runs in the fourth to erase the deficit en route to an 11-5 win.
The Foresters are the first team to win two NBC championships since the tournament became wooden bats only in 2000.
