HENDERSON, NV — Three water balloons, one ejection, 14 walks, three hit batters, two comebacks and 194 minutes later, the Santa Barbara Foresters were still undefeated.
The eight-time defending California Collegiate League champions gave up three runs before even recording an out in the first inning, but patience paid as a seventh-run sixth — highlighted by a 3-run homer by James Wharton — allowed for a marathon 11-7 triumph and series sweep of Team Vegas.
The Foresters are now 7-0 on the season and 5-0 in the CCL, while Team Vegas is 5-4 in league play.
Wharton — a third-year first baseman for Santa Barbara — finished with four RBIs while Dos Pueblos grad Robert Vickers had two runs, two hits, an RBI and a nice grab at third base in the game.
Starter Ian McCarthy plunked Vegas’ Duncan Blades with the first pitch of the game and then allowed a walk, a 3-run homer by Greg Bird and a single before finally escaping the inning and settling into a rhythm. The Forester pitchers struggled mightily in finding the strike zone, walking 11 and hitting three batters in the game. Team Vegas stranded 16 runners, however, leaving the bases loaded in the fourth and fifth.
One particularly bizarre occurrence came to be in the fifth, when the first four Vegas batters were walked but no runs scored in the inning due to a pickoff at first. Even more strange was a late-game barrage of water balloons onto the infield during the bottom of the eighth. They were apparently being launched by a group of mischievous youngsters from an adjoining roof.
Santa Barbara saw a 4-3 lead turn to a 5-4 deficit in the bottom of the sixth, but Nick Melino hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh to tie the score and Wharton followed with a 3-run blast to left field. Vickers, Lance Roenicke and Joe Wallace would all add hits before the inning ended as Santa Barbara went up 11-4. Melino — last year’s team MVP — was ejected for arguing balls and strikes late in the game.
The Foresters host the California Wahoos at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
