Something amazing happened yesterday in the NCAA baseball tournament’s Austin regional. Texas and Boston College played the longest baseball game in NCAA D-I history, a 25 inning affair finally won by the Longhorns 3-2. There are so many amazing stories to come out of this game, let me just hit a few as bullet points.
Texas scored two runs in the top of the second inning. Boston College kept the Longhorns off the scoreboard for the next 22 innings. Boston College scored single runs in the third and fifth inning and then were shut out for the remaining 19 innings. That is pitching dominance. The game lasted seven hours and three minutes.
Texas “closer” Austin Wood entered a 2-2 game one out into the seventh inning, and he stayed in for the next 13 innings! Wood pitched 12.1 innings of “no hit” baseball before surrendering a single to Tony Sanchez in the 19th inning. Wood did not figure into the final decision but threw 13 shutout innings, 169 pitches out of the bullpen. It was Wood’s second consecutive day on the mound. On Friday night he threw 2 innings (30 pitches) to earn his 15th save in Texas’ 3-1 win over Army.
Austin Dicharry (8-2) earned the win for Texas by throwing the final 5.2 innings of the game (1 hit, no runs, 65 pitches). Boston College’s pitching staff cannot be overlooked as the other half of this story. While the Longhorns only used three pitchers in the entire game BC used seven. Mike Belfiore entered the game one out into the ninth inning with the score 2-2. He was pulled after the 18th inning. Belfiore pitched 9.2 shutout innings, only surrendering three hits and no walks. He threw 129 pitches.
NCAA records set:
25 innings – Longest game in NCAA D-I history
91 at bats and 103 plate appearances by Texas, new NCAA records.
75 putouts by Texas, new NCAA record.
12 at bats by Travis Tucker and Michael Torres, new NCAA individual records.
I was shocked to see how many fans were still at the game when it ended. The announced attendance was 7,104 and it looked to me like more than half of them were still there to see the final out. Both catchers, Tony Sanchez for BC and Cameron Rupp for Texas, caught the entire game. Our friends at the SB Texas site Burnt Orange Nation had an open game thread last night. They closed the first one downafter about 650 comments. An overflow thread opened a bit after 10PM and was itself closed down after another 570 comments. The third thread, opened a bit after midnight, was titled “Really?” One of the participants announced that he had a daughter 50 hours earlier, and that at the point of his writing more than 10% of her life had happened during this baseball game. One of the first responses, “Hey congratulations! Can she hit? ” A few other chuckles:
12:28AM – “I never thought I would say this … but the 24th inning can’t get here fast enough.”
12:31AM – “OK, I’m going to the game. Later guys.”
12:43AM – “Hurry up, the Mayan calendar is ticking away.”
12:58AM – “Connor Rowe scores! You can hold Texas for 22 innings, but try 23 and it’s your ass!”
Boston College’s reward, they face Army this afternoon in an elimination game. First pitch noon CST. If Boston College can knock off the Black Knights, they get to play Texas again tonight. That game will start at 6PM CST.