The longest night

The Wild Things tied their team record Wednesday night/Thursday morning for longest game by innings in a 5-4 loss at Southern Illinois in 17 innings.

The 5-hour, 29-hour minute game was easily the longest in terms of time in team history, and the second-longest is not even close to last night's marathon that the Wild Things had a stranglehold on in the bottom of the ninth.

Washington led 4-2 with two outs and nobody on base in the ninth. One out away from a win, closer Taylor Wulf issued a walk that preceded consecutive doubles that tied the score and forced a whole bunch of extra innings.

Here are some of the notables from the game:

* Washington catcher Blake Ochoa hit two home runs.

* The Wild Things' Davis Bilardello made his debut with 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.

* Wild Things reliever Matt Barnes threw six shutout innings and struck out eight. He did not walk a batter.

* Southern Illinois' Trey Manz, who is listed on the roster as a catcher but entered the game by playing right field, was shifted to pitcher during the extra innings. Manz made his pro pitching debut by throwing three shutout innings and getting the win. The 23-year-old Manz said he hadn't pitched since an intrasquad game in his sophomore year of college.

* Southern Illinois pitcher Ryan Quigley had to play right field for several innings.

* The losing pitcher was Sean Allaire, a backup infielder and catcher who relieved Barnes and started the 17th inning. Allaire pitched in one mopup inning earlier this year. Prior to that, he pitched in only one game in college (an alumni game) and one game in high school. The interesting part is that Washington had two relief pitchers they did not use: Kevin Hammons and Mick Mattaliano. Hammons did not appear in any of the Wild Things' first nine games, except to pinch-hit once in a blowout. He finally pitched in a game Tuesday night in the series opener and faced three batters, striking out two. Mattaliano also pitched Tuesday night, facing only one batter.

* The Wild Things' other 17-inning game was played in 2003 at home against Evansville. The Wild Things lost that one, too, 3-2. That game took only 4 hours and 26 minutes to play and here's why: the home-plate umpire that night had the widest strike ever in baseball. EVER! As I recall, all the pitchers had to do to get a strike call was throw the baseball to between Franklin Farms Road and the Taylorstown exit on I-70.

I know, you think I'm exaggerating. Well, I am. But only a little. Want proof? Here goes: There were only two walks in that game. Think about that for a moment. Only two walks in a 17-inning Frontier League game. None of the walks were issued by Washington pitchers. Only one walk came after the second inning. The first nine innings were played in only 1:58.

Washington's best chance to win came in the 16th inning when Joe Cuervo was tagged out trying to score from third base on a short passed ball. Evansville then won it in the 17th on an error and two singles.

Photo courtesy of the Marion Daily Republican.