By Jim Buckley (photo by Lexi Brintle)
What would Ernie Banks have said about Saturday? Let’s play one-and-a-quarter? The Foresters returned to Pasadena to play the Arroyo Seco Saints, first to complete a suspended game, then to play a complete game. After nearly pulling off a comeback in the opener and falling 12-11, the Foresters completed their rally in the second and won a gutsy game 7-5 (yes, SB won 7-5 on 7/5). The W broke a four-game losing streak and maintained the ’Sters hold on first place in the CCL South.
An eighth-inning two-run double by Cole Chamberlain (pictured), the third and final hit of the gam for Santa Barbara, was the big blow in the victory and perhaps one of the biggest of the season. The six-out save that followed from Steele Eaves was a pitching highlight. In the game, the Saints handed the Foresters a ton of chances, walking a total of 14 batters and hitting three Foresters in a game that again challenged the Saints’ 10 pm lights-out curfew.
Before Chamberlain’s heroics, the Saints had gotten on board with a run in the first and two in the third. The Foresters matched all that in third without a hit. Five walks by Saints pitchers, plus a wild pitch, gifted the ’Sters three runs to tie the game.
The Saints grabbed the lead back in the fourth. Foresters starter A.J. Krodel was gritty and had Arroyo Seco down to their last strike of the inning before a two-RBI single made it 5-3 for the home team.
Chamberlain’s single to left leading off the fifth was the Foresters’ first hit of the game. In the sixth, the ’Sters again scored without benefit of a base hit. Zane Becker walked and moved around the bases on a wild pitch, a groundout, and a passed ball to make it 5-4.
Then came the turnaround three-run eighth. Makani Nabarro was hit by a pitch, Caleb Hoover walked, and Terrence Kiel was also hit to load ’em up. Liam Keithley came in to run for Hoover at second. Then Brenton Clark got the Foresters’ second hit of the game, a vital single that scored Nabarro to tie the game 5-5. On the play, however, Keithley was thrown out at the plate. After Easton Moomau walked, up came Chamberlain, who floated a ball to deep left that just landed fair, scoring Clark and Moomau. Clutch hits don’t come more clutch than the latest “two-out hits win championships” blast for the ’Sters.
Eaves came in to record six big outs for his third save of the season, striking out a pair.
That exciting evening contest followed the afternoon resumption of a game that started on June 10 but was suspended until Saturday. Back then, the Foresters and Saints had played most of another wild ballgame. In the seven innings they completed before the lights went out (literally), there were 20 runs, 23 hits, 22 strikeouts, and five hit batters. The Foresters had a five-run inning and the Saints put up a six-spot in the sixth. Before the clock struck 10 pm, Arroyo led 12-8 and that’s where the game picked up Saturday in the eighth.
The Foresters quickly made it close with a run in that inning. Sawyer Farr reached on an error and made it to third, in part thanks to a stolen base, and Kiel sent him home on a groundout. In the ninth, it got more exciting, as the Foresters kept rallying. Caden Miller’s single started things off, and then Chamberlain smacked a double to score Miller. An error by the Saints trying to nab Miller allowed Chamberlain to score a Little League homer and it was suddenly a one-run ballgame. But that’s where it ended, 26 days after it started.
Arroyo managed to win the suspended game despite committing six errors, striking out 13 times, and leaving 11 on base. Kiel had a great game, with a pair of hits and three RBI, while Hoover and Moomau had a pair of RBI each.
Though the long day in Pasadena was officially a split, the exciting rally in the regularly scheduled game made the bus ride home a happy one. The Foresters wrap up a string of six (and a quarter) games in a row with a 2 pm start against these same Saints on Sunday at Eddie Mathews Field. Come out and cheer them on or tune in on our YouTube channel, links on the home page.
