It took 15 innings, 4 1/2 hours, six pitchers, 18 hits and one botched ground ball, but the Washington University baseball team pulled out a long-winded 6-5 victory over the University of Chicago Saturday afternoon, in the first game of a doubleheader.
With bases loaded and one out, freshman designated hitter Wright Lindgren topped a soft ground ball down the third baseline. The third baseman had the ball tip off his glove and had to rush the throw home. By then, it was already too late. Senior center fielder Max Golembo scored from third to end the marathon.
Stephen Huber | Student LifeJunior Ben Browdy covers first base in the Bears’ 15-inning win against University of Chicago on Saturday afternoon. The Bears won two of three games in the Alumni Weekend triple-header against University of Chicago.
“I’ve coached some extra inning games and some, believe it or not, even longer than that,” head coach Pat Bloom said. “I think what it really tests is our guys’ mental toughness and their ability to overcome fatigue and overcome setbacks throughout the game.”
There were plenty of setbacks. In both the 10th and 11th innings, the Bears had a runner in scoring position with one out, only to ground into inning-ending double plays. In the 14th, Lindgren was thrown out trying to advance from second to home on a single by senior catcher Kyle Kozak. Had Bloom held Lindgren at third, the Bears would have had runners on first first and second with one out. However, Bloom cited scouting as the reason for the aggressive send.
“We knew that the left fielder was probably the lesser of the three [outfielders] in terms of arm strength. He just happened to come up, get a hop and make a good throw,” Bloom said. “Give him credit for doing it.”
In total, the Bears left 17 men on base in the game and went 1-7 with runners in scoring position from the ninth inning onward. It took a hit by pitch, a bunt single with an errant throw and an intentional walk to set the stage in the bottom of the 15th. Even Wash. U.’s decisive run was miscue-aided.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities offensively, but we did enough defensively to continue to throw zero’s up and give our offense a chance to squeak one across the board,” Bloom said.
Defense proved crucial on more than one occasion. In the 10th, junior Scott Nelson made a leaping grab on a wind-aided line drive to left field for the first out of the inning. Two batters later, junior Ben Browdy ranged to his right, made a diving stop and threw to first for the third out of the inning. Then in the 12th, Golembo made a full extension dive with two outs and the bases loaded to save at least two runs. In between those flashy plays, Kozak threw out a runner attempting to steal second in the 11th and picked a runner off second in the 13th.
All of this defensive effort worked in support of a five-man relief corps that put together seven innings of one-run ball in support of junior Brad Margolin who went eight innings, allowing four runs and collecting six strikeouts. After Chicago tied the game 5-5 on a wild pitch in the ninth, Chicago mustered just three hits and struck out five times in the final six innings. Sophomore Alex Truss pitched the final three and a third inning to earn his second win of the season.
At the plate, the Bears struck first with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, with RBIs from junior first baseman Tate Maider, Kozak and Golembo. Chicago then knotted the score with a pair of runs in the fifth and a run on a throwing error by Margolin in the sixth. Junior shortstop Austin Darmawan gave the Bears the lead again with a triple to left center, scoring junior third basemen Spencer Egly. Both teams traded runs in the eighth before Chicago scored in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.
Lindgren’s winning ground ball would have been a cathartic bookend for a tiring day, only there was still another game to play. Luckily for the Bears and their stamina, game two’s 11-1 victory over Chicago followed a much different script.
Wash. U. hit .388 with runners in scoring position, and Nelson, now on the mound, gave the Bears a complete-game, seven-inning performance, allowing one run and one walk while striking out three.
“Obviously we were all exhausted,” Darmawan said of the back-to-back games. “We played 15 innings before that and to have a pitcher come out and throw strikes like that is just huge. It’s all you need to do—it gets us pumped. He’s got to be tired too…To see him give all that he’s got is just awesome to see.”
Nelson’s performance becomes even more impressive once you remember that he also played nine innings in left field. He relieved junior Christian Santos in the seventh inning, and then stayed on until the completion of the game. It’s not standard practice to send starting pitchers out into the field for extended periods of time only hours before they throw, but it’s fair to say Bloom did not realize Nelson would essentially have to play a complete game before heading out to the mound.
Nelson’s complete-game start also helped preserve a bullpen that had to cover seven innings in the game before and could be called upon to pitch the next day, in the Bears’ third and final game against Chicago.
The Bears scored three runs in the opening three innings but blew the game wide open in the fourth, with seven runs on six hits. After a single, walk and hit by pitch loaded the bases with one out, Darmawan, Golembo, Santos and Browdy strung together four singles to drive in six runs. A single by Maider, scoring Browdy, rounded out the scoring. The Bears would tack on another run in the fifth on an RBI ground out by Golembo before settling in for the 10-run victory.
Santos made up for his 0-3 performance with six men left on base in the first game of the doubleheader by going 4-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Other notables for the Bears were Golembo, who collected a game-high three RBIs, Browdy, who went 2-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, and Darmawan who scored four runs.
In the final game of the weekend, the Bears were stymied for just six hits in an 11-2 loss. The two runs the Bears scored came on one swing of the bat, a two run shot to left field off the bat of Browdy in the bottom of the fourth. Meanwhile, senior Julian Clarke was tagged for 11 hits and six runs in six innings, for his fourth loss of the season.
With the 2-1 weekend, the Bears improve to 22-13.
Even after playing 31 innings of baseball this weekend, the Bears will not have much of a breather. They take Kelly Field again on Tuesday for a 3:30 p.m. game against Millikin University.