Santa Barbara High watched an 11-run lead at Buena disappear before scrambling back to beat the Bulldogs, 15-12, in eight innings on Friday in a Channel League baseball game.
Bryce Morison belted a grand slam and Daniel McKinney followed with a solo homer in an eight-run second inning for the Dons. They added two runs in the fourth and a single run in the fifth to take an 11-0 lead with Kevin Gowdy on the mound
Buena roared back, capitalizing on three Santa Barbara errors and five hits off four pitchers to score 10 runs in the fifth inning. The Bulldogs added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 12-12.
“It was the best of times and the worst of times, all in the same game,” Santa Barbara assistant coach Mike Cooney said. “There were many lessons learned today, especially that no lead is safe on a windy day at Buena. We were shaky in the fifth but pulled it together to avoid disaster.”
On Santa Barbara’s best offensive day of the season (19 hits), the Dons scored three runs on five hits in the eighth inning to pull out the win.
Dalton Schroeder retired the Bulldogs with two strikeouts in the bottom of the eighth to finish off the wild game. Santa Barbara snapped a four-game losing streak, evened its league record to 2-2 and improved to 7-4 overall.
Morison finished with 3 hits and 5 RBI and McKinney had 3 hits, including a seventh-inning triple, and 2 RBI. Trevor Moropoulos led all Don hitters with 4 hits in 5 at bats, with 3 RBI, while Carter Soto was 3-for-4 and scored 4 runs.
