GLENDALE — James Wharton sent a 3-run home run soaring over the left-field fence in the ninth inning as the Santa Barbara Foresters rallied to beat the Glendale Angelenos 8-6 on Saturday night. It was the eighth straight win for first-place Santa Barbara, which is seeking its ninth consecutive California Collegiate League title.
“It was a great feeling,” said the soft-spoken Wharton. “I just got a hanging slider that I could drive and got a hold of it.”
Wharton went 4-for-4 with three RBIs. In his third season with the team, he leads the squad with 26 RBIs.
It was a see-saw game, with Glendale (18-17, 7-16) scoring a run in the first inning before Santa Barbara (27-8, 19-8) scored four in the fourth, capped off by a two-run homer from Riley Moore.
Second-baseman Derek Legg, who made some fantastic run-saving defensive plays, had an RBI single in the fifth to make it 5-1.
The wheels fell off in the seventh, however, as Santa Barbara gave up a single and four straight walks. Spencer Messmore, who ended up with the win, gave up a 3-run double to Josh Goosen-Brown that put Glendale up 6-5 before striking out the side to end the inning.
Brett Vertigan walked to open the bottom of the ninth. Jeff McNeil bunted unsuccessfully for the first out and Jeff McVaney, the conference’s leading hitter, slapped a single into left to put runners on the corners with one out. With Goosen-Brown on the mound, Wharton came through and crushed the second pitch of his at-bat out of the park.
“It was a bomb. It was way out and it’s still going,” said manager Bill Pintard.
Stephen Johnson picked up his third save of the season despite giving up a double in the ninth.
Despite already clinching a berth in next month’s National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Pintard loves how his team is continuing to come to the ballpark hungry to win.
“It’s awesome. We come to the yard every day expecting to win and you can feel it. We’re loose and we’re having fun,” he said.
Moore’s home run came in his first start since the opening week of the season, as the University of Arizona-bound catcher out of San Marcos High has been battling tendinitis.
“I grew up around the Foresters, and to be playing for them the last couple of years and to hit a home run like that is pretty wild,” he said.
The third and final game of the series will be at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday, and will be broadcast on AM 990 KTMS as well as www.sbforesters.org.
