WICHITA — The Santa Barbara Foresters lost their first game of the National Baseball Congress World Series, falling to the El Dorado Broncos 4-3 Monday night at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
“It was a great baseball game and our guys battled, but we just came up short. I’m proud of our guys,” said manager Bill Pintard.
The team now has two days off before playing in an elimination game on Thursday.
The game endured a two-hour rain delay after the first inning as heavy lightning storms pulled in. About four hours after first pitch, the Foresters had the bases loaded with no outs, trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Davis Duren scored from third on a fielding error by the Broncos’ first baseman and David Harris came in on a fly ball from Ryan Goetz, but the defending champs couldn’t get the tying run across.
Starter Tyler Blanford was not able to return after the delay, and Matt Hutchison came on in relief. Hutchison was not his usual dominant self, going 4.1 innings and giving up four runs before being relieved by Kevin Dickey and later Matt Evers.
James Meador, who is hitting .462 on the tournament, did his part defensively in the seventh, preventing the Broncos from scoring a fifth run with an absolute rocket from right field that nabbed Graham Tyler at the plate.
El Dorado had to replace its starter after the delay as well, and Bryant Cotton came in having pithed only three innings all summer. The Foresters were hitting the ball hard off of Cotton, but the Bronco fielders seemed to always be in the right spot. Cotton finished his six-inning stint having given up just one run on three hits.
The Conejo Oaks began their game against the Liberal (KS) Bee Jays after midnight and lost an absolutely crazy game 6-5. The Oaks had a 5-3 lead with two outs in the top of the ninth but fell victim to a botched call. Four Oaks, including the right fielder, were ejected before the contest finally ended at 3:42 a.m.
