The Santa Barbara Foresters used a five-run 11th inning to complete a thrilling comeback win over the OC Riptide by a score of 10-9 on Friday at Pershing Park.
After heading into the bottom of the 11th down four runs, Santa Barbara capitalized on two Riptide errors to inch closer, and Max Belyeu came up clutch with an RBI single to score Greg Pace and walk it off.
It was a tight affair all game, as the scoring was kicked off by Orange County in the top of the third but the Foresters answered immediately in the bottom half with a solo homer by Ryan Galvan to tie it up at 1-1.
Then, following a two-run fifth inning by the Riptide, Belyeu cracked a homer to left field in the sixth and Pace cleared the outfield wall in the seventh to give the Foresters their first lead of the night at 4-3.
That score held until the top of the ninth inning, when Orange County caught a break by tying the game up with two outs on a wild pitch.
After the Foresters couldn’t scratch a run across in the ninth, the matchup between the top two teams in the CCL standings was sent into extra innings.
In the 10th, both teams cashed in on their ghost runners on second to bring the score to 5-5 heading into the 11th inning, when the Riptide offense exploded for four runs and the Foresters came up with their late-night heroics on their home field.
With the win, Santa Barbara is now 3 ½ games ahead of the Riptide in the league standings and will look to extend that lead in a rematch between these two teams on Saturday in Orange County at 7 p.m.
