After an evenly matched 8 ½ innings between the Santa Barbara Foresters and San Diego Waves on Thursday, the ‘Sters found themselves trailing 4-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
However, the Foresters began to piece together a rally as both Addison Klepsch (UC San Diego) and Sawyer Farr (Texas A&M) walked and Kurt Ippolito (Central Christian) singled to load the bases with two outs.
Brady Janusek (Baylor) then stepped to the plate and came through with a bases-clearing, walk-off double to send the Santa Barbara dugout into a frenzy and clinch the 5-4 win at Eddie Matthews Field.
The Foresters improved to 10-1 with the victory and will be on the road against the Arroyo Seco Saints on Friday at 5:35 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Field.
Earlier in Thursday’s battle, the Waves jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first courtesy of a Santa Barbara error and a run-scoring double.
The ‘Sters got one run back in the bottom of the first on an RBI double by Chris Newstrom (Tennessee) to score Ippolito, but that 3-1 score held until the bottom of the sixth.
Santa Barbara starter Zane Burns (Oklahoma State) was the main reason for this, as he settled in after allowing three unearned runs in the first by striking out nine batters across five strong innings of work.
After Josh Woodworth (Pepperdine) came in and fired a scoreless sixth, Newstrom inched the Foresters closer in the bottom half with an RBI single to make it a 3-2 game.
The Waves responded with a run in the top of the seventh, but Santa Barbara’s Will Jordan (Texas Tech) and Joey Wittig (Louisiana Tech) kept the visitors off the board in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to set the stage for Janusek’s heroics.
Newstrom paced the offensive attack by going 3-for-4, while Janusek’s three RBI led the team. Ippolito and Farr also had solid games atop the lineup, each scoring twice.