Carpinteria escaped with a wild 11-7 baseball win over Hueneme in a Citrus Coast League game where Hueneme was the home team at the Warriors’ John Calderwood Field on Wednesday.
Hueneme’s field was not usable due to the backstop being under construction, Carpinteria coach Pat Cooney pointed out. “The location turned out to be just one of many unusual events in the game.”
There were huge momentum swings, three balks by Carpinteria pitchers, a straight steal of home, two key double plays and the ejection of a fan.
“This was a wild one,” said Cooney.
Carpinteria jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings. But Hueneme roared back as it rapped out nine of their 12 hits over the next three innings to take a 7-5 lead into the seventh.
The Vikings brought in reliever Ismael Robles to finish out the game, but the Warriors had other ideas. They erupted for six runs to take an 11-7 lead going into the home half of the inning.
Carpinteria reliever Matt Muñoz induced a double play grounder to shortstop Hunter Garcia. But Vikings then drew three walks.
Zack Mata entered the game and got the next batter to hit a hard grounder to third baseman Oscar Velasquez. He snared the ball and stepped on the bag for the final out.
Muñoz paced the Warrior attack with two hits, two RBI and two runs scored. Erich Goebel had a hit, walked twice, drove in two runs and scored two. Garcia had a hit, two walks, a RBI and two runs scored.
Carpinteria is now 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the CCL. Hueneme is 3-4, 0-2.