Doin' hard time in Marion
The Florence Freedom and Southern Illinois Miners spent a month in Marion, Ill., over the weekend. The teams played two of the longest games in Frontier League history on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
Southern Illinois won 4-3 in 18 innings Friday. The game lasted 5 hours and 44 minutes. The most interesting part of the Miners' win was they played the final 9 innings without a designated hitter. The Miners were out of position players when third baseman Chris Hall and manager Mike Pinto were ejected in the ninth inning. As a result, Southern Illinois had to put its designated hitter into the field, which put the pitcher into Hall's spot in the batting order. Twice during extra innings, the Miners used pitchers as pinch-hitters.
Southern Illinois grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the 15th, and Florence had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at home plate in the 17th.
On Sunday, Southern Illinois edged Florence 10-9 in 14 innings. The game also surpassed the 5-hour mark.
The Miners scored three runs in the bottom of the 9th on Friday to force the extra innings, and on Sunday they produced a two-out, two-run hit to send the game to the 10th.
The longest game in Wild Things history is a 3-2 loss at home to Evansville on June 24, 2003. Two things stand out in my mind about that game: 1. Washington's Joe Cuervo hesitating just long enough that he was thrown out at home plate while trying to score on a short passed ball sometime during the extra innings. 2. The home-plate umpire had a strike zone that went from the inside corner on a right-handed hitter to the Claysville exit on Interstate 70. There were only 2 walks in the 17 innings - none by Washington pitchers - and nobody drew a walk in the last 10 innings.
Southern Illinois won 4-3 in 18 innings Friday. The game lasted 5 hours and 44 minutes. The most interesting part of the Miners' win was they played the final 9 innings without a designated hitter. The Miners were out of position players when third baseman Chris Hall and manager Mike Pinto were ejected in the ninth inning. As a result, Southern Illinois had to put its designated hitter into the field, which put the pitcher into Hall's spot in the batting order. Twice during extra innings, the Miners used pitchers as pinch-hitters.
Southern Illinois grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the 15th, and Florence had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at home plate in the 17th.
On Sunday, Southern Illinois edged Florence 10-9 in 14 innings. The game also surpassed the 5-hour mark.
The Miners scored three runs in the bottom of the 9th on Friday to force the extra innings, and on Sunday they produced a two-out, two-run hit to send the game to the 10th.
The longest game in Wild Things history is a 3-2 loss at home to Evansville on June 24, 2003. Two things stand out in my mind about that game: 1. Washington's Joe Cuervo hesitating just long enough that he was thrown out at home plate while trying to score on a short passed ball sometime during the extra innings. 2. The home-plate umpire had a strike zone that went from the inside corner on a right-handed hitter to the Claysville exit on Interstate 70. There were only 2 walks in the 17 innings - none by Washington pitchers - and nobody drew a walk in the last 10 innings.
posted by Chris Dugan at
10:01 PM
2 Comments:
Chris,
Your talk of extra-innings brings back my favorite memory of marathon baseball here in Chillicothe.
It was late in 2002, near the end of a fairly miserable year for the Paints. They were playing Richmond with very little on the line except pride between Jamie Keefe and Fran Riordan.
I was off that night, and about the eighth inning my then-wife decided she had to go to the emergency room. So we piled in the truck with the game tied, and headed to the hospital.
The emergency room in Ross County ain't a short visit. But we jumped through the hoops and got things taken care of. And, after a couple hours, got back in my truck.
With the game still on the radio. So we headed back to the ballpark.
The most precious part of the whole thing was the look on the face of the guy who was pinch-writing for me that night. I've never seen such misery at a ballpark, but to his credit, he hung in there for every single pitch.
In the end, Richmond scored a run in the top of the 17th. And the Paints scored two in the bottom, ending a 5-4 game that also included a rain delay and took more than five hours to complete. The kicker was that it was Fan Appreciation Night (or something like that), and after 1 a.m. the fireworks got going. Which is now part of Paints lore since there's a rule on the books that 11:30 p.m. is the latest you can set off so much as a sparkler at VA Memorial Stadium.
I listened to the Florence broadcast of the last 6 innings of the 18-inning game in Southern Illinois. It was supposed to be Fireworks Night in Marion but I don't know if the pyrotechnics went off as planned or not. The game ended at 12:54 a.m. local time.
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