ST. PAUL, Minn.- There are back-and-forth battles between two evenly matched teams, and then there is the 13 inning, nearly four hour long epic that the University of Northwestern and the University of Minnesota-Morris baseball teams treated fans to on Saturday. UNW came back from down six runs to force extra innings and then finally outlasted Morris to win the instant classic 11-8 in 13 innings.
The game was broken into two halves. In the first half of the game, offenses were clicking and a lot of runs were put on the board. In the second half of the game, each team got dominant relief pitching out of their bullpen and neither team could find a way to push across that winning run until the Eagles finally did it in the 13
th inning.
The scoring started right away. In the top half of the first,
Benji Bruce (Minneapolis, Minn./Maranatha Christian) hit a slow roller to third base. Bruce beat it out for an infield single, but the throw to try to retire him was wild and allowed
Gilbert Garcia Jr. (Stockton, Cali./Saint Mary's) to score the first run of the game. The Eagles' 1-0 lead would be short lived. Morris would answer back with two runs in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a two out, two run double.
The Cougars were playing as the home team (despite the game being played at Reynolds Field) due to this series originally being scheduled to take place in Morris, Minnesota but was relocated to UNW due to field conditions. For the first six innings of the contest, the Cougars' offense seemed right at home at Reynolds Field. Morris remarkably scored runs in each of the first six innings of the ball game to build a big lead.
UNW, playing as the visitors on their home field, found themselves in a 7-1 hole when they came up to bat in the top of the sixth inning. The Eagles began to chip into the lead.
Cramer Hamilton (Apple Valley, Calif./Excelsior) ripped a single off the left field fence which scored
Ben Spores (Arlington, Wash./Arlington).
Bryce Crabb (Des Moines, Iowa/Grand View Christian) would then pick up an RBI with a single to right field driving in
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong). Hamilton would score when
Aaron Severson (Columbia Heights, Minn./Columbia Heights) hit a RBI single to right field and Crabb would score thanks to an RBI double by
Gilbert Garcia Jr. (Stockton, Cali./Saint Mary's) The Eagles scored four runs in the frame cut the deficit to two. However, the Cougars would immediately respond in the bottom of the sixth with a run of their own and the score read 8-5 in favor of Morris entering the seventh inning.
The long road back from down 7-1 came to an end in the seventh inning. UNW would score three runs in the frame, making it seven runs over the sixth and seventh innings to quickly erase the deficit. Crabb picked up another RBI with an infield single that scored
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake). Severson picked up two more RBIs by singling up the middle to score
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Illinois/Yorkville) and
Cramer Hamilton (Apple Valley, Calif./Excelsior). After trailing by six runs, the game was now tied 8-8 entering the bottom of the seventh inning.
After high octane offense had been the story for each team up until this point, dominant pitching out of the bullpen became the story in the later innings. The game would be locked at 8-8 all the way until the 13
th inning with neither team finding a way to drive in the go ahead run despite both sides having chances with runners in scoring position.
Nick Drinken (Randolph, Minn./Randolph) was incredible out of the bullpen for the Eagles. The junior pitched 4.2 innings of shutout relief to get the game into extra innings and then give his team a chance to win it in extras. The right hander found himself in some trouble in the eighth inning, with runners on second and third with two outs. Drinken would strand both runners in scoring position by picking up a strikeout, one of the five he had in the game. He would then be dominant in the ninth and tenth innings, retiring six consecutive batters.
The Eagles also had scoring opportunities that the Morris bullpen was able to wiggle out of. In the top of the eighth inning, UNW had runners on first and second base in a tie game. Rabey would hit a ground ball to second base and the Cougars would get the force out at second base. The Cougars would then throw behind the runner at third base who had round the base too aggressively. He was tagged out and Morris picked up an unconventional double play to end the threat. In the top of the 12
th inning, the Eagles had the winning run on third base and once again were unable to get him home for the go ahead run.
In the top half of the 13
th inning, the Eagles finally broke the tie.
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Illinois/Yorkville), who was a hero in multiple ways late in this ball game, hit a single to left field that was misplayed by the left fielder and rolled all the way to the wall.
Cramer Hamilton (Apple Valley, Calif./Excelsior) and
Beau Rabey (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) scored the go ahead runs.
Logan Karnowski (Blaine, Minn./Blaine), who had entered the game as a pinch runner, delivered some insurance in his first at bat of the game by driving in Hixon with a single to right field. The Eagles had a three run lead, needing three more outs to conclude this epic saga.
Ben Hixon (Yorkville, Illinois/Yorkville), who delivered the game winning hit, was on the mound in the bottom of the 13
th. Hixon got the first batter to pop out and then gave up a one out single. The next batter would hit a ball to
Isaac Pilon (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) at shortstop, who stepped on second, and delivered a strike to first base to give the Eagles their most memorable win of the season so far, 11-8.
Hixon was simply phenomenal out of the bullpen, delivering three shutout innings while only giving up one hit. As a whole, UNW's bullpen went five innings, gave up one run on five hits, and picked up six strikeouts.
The Eagles' offense exploded for 19 hits in the contest. Seven players had multi-hit games with Severson and Garcia Jr. picking up three hits apiece. Severson had three RBIs while Crabb and Hixon each had two.
Up Next
It is remarkable to think that after 13 innings played on Saturday night, these two teams still have a lot of baseball to play against each other this weekend. The Eagles and the Cougars will wrap up their three game series with a doubleheader at Reynolds Field (with Morris as the home team once again) tomorrow starting at 2:00 PM.
