By Jim Buckley
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the Foresters just had too much McLain for the Santa Maria Pea Soup to handle. The battin’ brothers, Matthew and Sean, led the way as the ’Sters rallied from an early hole to win 10-7 to run their record to 15-3. The McLains combined for five hits, three runs, four RBI (okay, Matt had all of those), and a pair of steals, both by Sean. The back-and-forth game saw several lead changes until the Foresters clinched the deal in the sixth and seventh.
A first-inning three-run homer by the Soup helped give them a 4-0 lead before the Foresters even picked up a bat. But the first ’Ster to do so (M. McLain, natch) promptly got one run back with a leadoff homer, his second of the season. SB added a second in the second on a groundout by pitcher-turned-DH Casey Dykstra.
The big inning was the fourth, as Santa Barbara piled on five runs. Dykstra got two more ribbies with a single and then Matthew brought home another with a bases-loaded walk to drive in Sean, who had reached on a single. A Jace Jung groundout and a Peyton Graham sac fly pushed the score to 7-4.
The Soup was still hot, however, and chipped away to tie the score in the top of the sixth. Time for another Foresters rally, with Matthew leading off with a double and coming around to score the go-ahead run. In the seventh, Santa Barbara added insurance runs thanks to (who else?) Matthew, who banged a single through the infield for two more runs.
As for pitching, Blake Adams started and really made one bad pitch for the homer. All four of his runs were actually unearned and he struck out seven. Bryce Warrecker, Sean Mullen, and Elijah Trest scattered two hits and a run over the final four innings to finally put a lid on the Soup.
After a much-needed off day Monday, the Foresters welcome back the Bakersfield Blaze on Tuesday at 6 pm. Tune in on KCSB.org/sports for all the action.
