By Blythe Hastings
It looked like the Home Run Derby at Pershing on Friday night as the Foresters and Saints combined for five longballs through 11 innings. Even with all that firepower, no one came out on top. The game was suspended by curfew after 11 innings with the score tied 8-8. A continuation or a final result will be announced soon.
Fans who stuck around for the whole game saw an exciting, see-saw affair. The Foresters forced extras after coming from behind twice, trailing 6-3 and 7-4 before their three-run seventh tied the game. Each team scored in the tenth, but then darkness loomed.
Parker Smith, starting on the mound for the ’Sters, let the Saints get an early start with a Peyton Holt two-run homer. The Saints made it 3-0 in the fourth before the Foresters countered with three of their own in the bottom of that inning. Gavin Kash and Tanner O’Tremba got to the corners after two hits. Payton Tolle then blasted his first homer of the season onto Castillo Street to tie the game 3-3.
Jacob Martinez took over for Smith and the Saints took advantage. After a leadoff single, Drew Cowley of the Saints scored after an error, a passed ball, and a wild pitch. Things got worse when Matt Wong and Nathan Becker hit back-to-back solo shots to make it 6-3. The Sters got one back in the bottom half; Rylan Charles hit a leadoff double and went to third when Kevin Bazzell’s ball was thrown away by the Saints third baseman. Gavin Kash then drove Charles in with a groundout. by Rylan Charles Charles on the bags. A wild throw to first base put Bazzell on second and Charles on third. But the Saints matched that run in the seventh when Cowley scored on a wild pitch.
The game turned in the Foresters favor in the seventh. Charles started with a loud solo blast to right field, flipping his bat high towards the Saints dugout, cutting the visitors’ lead 7-5. The ‘Sters kept the heat on as Miguel Santos walked and Bazzell took a ball in the arm, putting runners on second and first. A wild pitch allowed them to advance to third and second. Another Kash RBI, this time on a sac fly, made it 7-6. The crowd them erupted when O’Tremba singled home Bazzell to tie the game 7-7.
The game went to the tenth, and since the CCL uses MLB rules, a free runner is placed on second to start the top and bottom of the frame. After the Saints scored in the top of the tenth, the Foresters answered when Josh Stinson drove home “ghost” runner Miguel Santos. Neither team could score in the 11th, though the Foresters had the bases loaded with two outs and the game “ended” on a 1-2-3 double play.
With the game going for more than 4 hours, the ‘Sters will probably continue against the Saints the next time the matchup occurs, but that will be determined by the CCL in the coming days. The score remains 8-8 as the lights turn off at Pershing, with a suspended game. Tune in Saturday at 4 pm to AM 1290 KZSB to hear the action as the Foresters travel north to take on the SLO Blues.
