A hit-and-run double by Matthew McLain scored Pat Caulfield with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Santa Barbara Foresters an 8-7 summer collegiate baseball win over Santa Maria Pea Soup at Pershing Park Wednesday night.
Caulfield, a former SBCC star who started this spring for UCLA, reached base on an infield single and raced around the bases on the drive by his Bruin teammate.
They combined for half of Santa Barbara’s eight hits. Caulfield went 2-for-3 and scored four runs while McLain was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
The Foresters (12-2) took the lead in the third inning when Caulfield raced all the way to second base on a dropped third strike and scored on McLain’s single.
Caulfield also triggered a four-run fifth with a leadoff double. Although Santa Barbara didn’t get another hit in the inning, it used three walks, two passed balls, three stolen bases and a sacrifice fly by Christian Encarnacion to extend its lead to 5-0. The Foresters stole nine bases in the game.
Starting pitcher Nick Nastrini, sophomore ace of the UCLA pitching staff, pitched four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. He walked four but struck out six.
But Santa Maria got help from the Foresters to get back into the game with a four-run sixth inning. It parlayed two walks, a hit batter, an infield error, Jackson Smith’s two-run double and Jay Prather’s sacrifice fly to draw to within 5-4.
Encarnacion’s RBI single extended Santa Barbara’s lead to 6-4 in the seventh, but a two-run home run by former San Marcos High and SBCC star Ryan Guardino tied the game in the eighth.
The Foresters pushed back ahead in the bottom of the eighth when Caulfield walked, stole second base and scored on an outfield error. But an infield error by Santa Barbara in the ninth set up Nick Gatewood’s RBI double to tie the game again.
McLain’s game-winning hit in the 10th was his team-high sixth double of the season. Jake Harrell, a lefthander from Fresno State, earned the pitching win by retiring the Santa Maria side in the top of the 10th.
The two teams will return to Pershing Park again today at 6 p.m. Spectators are not allowed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
email: mpatton@newspress.com
