The St. Joseph Mustangs lost their first game at the NBC World Series in Wichita Wednesday as they fell to Santa Barbara (CA), 8-6, in the winner’s bracket championship game.

St. Joe’s summer college baseball team drops to 38-20 and they play again Thursday against an opponent to be determined at either 5:00 or 10:00 p.m.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Santa Barbara answered back with five unanswered runs off St. Joseph starter Adam Maddox and they led 5-2 after three innings.

St. Joe battled right back to tie the game as Kyle Simpson had a two-out RBI single in the fourth and Kris Koerper hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.

The Foresters took bank momentum with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and one more in the sixth inning to take an 8-5 lead.

The score remained that way until the ninth when Pat Burkhart hit an RBI single, but Alec Rosales struck out with the tying runs on base.

Maddox fell to 4-2 this season as went 4.2 innings and gave up seven runs on 12 hits.

Simpson finished the night 3-for-5, while Burkhart and Saulyer Saxon added two hits each.

The Mustangs game on Thursday night will be broadcast on ESPN 1550 and at www.espnstjoseph.com.