The Santa Barbara Foresters won the National Baseball Congress World Series championship for a record seventh time Saturday night, and they did it in style, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
After the National Junior College All-America team scored three runs in the top of the ninth to erase a 5-2 Santa Barbara lead, the Foresters snapped right back, loading the bases and then walking off with the 6-5 victory when Patrick Mathis drew a base on balls. Logan Allen, who led off the rally with a single, scored the decisive run.
Mathis, a former Texas outfielder who was among the permissible additions to the Santa Barbara roster in Wichita, was named MVP of the tournament. He whacked a two-run homer in the first inning.
It was the last of 84 NBC World Series played in Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The tournament will be moved to Wichita State’s diamond next year. Manager Bill Pintard’s Foresters go down in history as the last team to win the NBC crown in the old stadium, and the team with the most titles.