The Santa Barbara Foresters won their fifth NBC World Series title in franchise history on Saturday night after a 3-2 12-inning victory over the defending champion Seattle Studs in Wichita, Kansas.
Ford Stainback scored the winning run in the top of the 12th with two outs on an RBI double by Granger Studdard.
In the bottom of the 12th Max Whitt got on base with a leadoff single but Troy Cruz, the game’s winning pitcher, retired the next three batters to secure the victory for Santa Barbara. Cruz pitched the 10th, 11th and 12 innings for the Foresters, who got a six-inning, one-run performance from starter Brandon Quintero.
Santa Barbara pitchers combined to allow only four runs in their final 30 innings of the tournament.
Starting pitcher Jon Duplantier was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. The right-hander from Rice University provided an ERA of 1.50 in two starts at the NBC World Series, and finished one away from the Foresters’ single-season strikeout record with 74 in 54 innings.
Seattle gained a 1-0 lead in the third inning and, after the Foresters tied in the sixth, regained the lead at 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh.
Jaylin Davis, who went 4-for-6 for Santa Barbara batting third in the order, led off the eighth with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Jeremy Montalbano.
After scoring both of the Foresters’ first two runs, Davis kept Santa Barbara alive in the bottom of the tenth by throwing out Seattle’s Connor Savage at home plate from center field.
Davis batted .435 in the tournament and finished the season with an overall average of .341 in 195 plate appearances. Stainback led the Foresters with a season average of .353 in 161 plate appearances. Davis led S.B. with seven home runs while Studdard collected a team-high 49 RBI this summer.
Saturday’s win over Seattle clinched Santa Barbara’s third national title in the past four years.
The Foresters’ week in Wichita had already been highlighted by manager Bill Pintard being inducted into the NBC World Series Hall of Fame.
