COLUMBUS, Ga. - In certainly one of the wildest and maybe the longest games in SSAC baseball tournament history, 6th-seeded Reinhardt College scored in the bottom of the 12th inning and defeated 3rd-seeded Lee, 6-5.
The contest lasted four hours and 18 minutes and featured 12 walks by Lee pitchers and 10 free passes by Reinhardt hurlers. The Flames left a total of 15 men on base and the Eagles stranded 13. A total of seven errors were committed, four by Reinhardt and three by Lee. Both teams blew numerous opportunities to score. Before the day was complete, Reinhardt had used six pitchers and Lee five.
In the bottom of the 12th, pinch hitter Blaine Martin was hit by a pitch after losing Lee pitcher Pablo Lopez had a 0-2 count. Brent Martin pushed the runner to second with a sacrifice bunt and Brett Flick ended the game with a long single in the gap in left-center field.
The defeat dropped the Flames (45-11) into the loser's bracket. They will face the loser of the Southern Poly and Southern Wesleyan game, which was being played later on Wednesday night. The action is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Lee broke a scoreless battle in the third inning when Ross Collins walked. Trey Burstrom bunted Collins to second. The Lee center-fielder stole third and then scored on a throwing error by the Reinhardt catcher. The Eagles tied the contest at one when Brad Blalock drilled a home run over the right-field wall.
Lee went back up 2-1 in the fifth inning. Chris Dubon, Junior Rodriguez and Collins walked to load the bases. Courtesy runner Jeff Ramirez scored on a wild pitch but the Flames left men on second and third with nobody out when relief pitcher Ricky Johnson came on to retire the side.
In the bottom of the same inning, Reinhardt tied the game at two when the Flames blew an opportunity to convert a double play and allowed courtesy runner Michael Lonati to score on a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Roberts.
The Eagles tallied three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and appeared to have the contest well in hand. Robby Hearn had a key double in the inning as Reinhardt sent nine men to the plate. The wild inning saw the Flames walk three Eagle hitters. Jared Willis was also hit by a pitch to force home a run and Lee was guilty of two errors in the frame.
The Flames battled back to tie the game with a single run in the eight inning and two more runs in the ninth. Collins has a single and a RBI in the eighth and Elvis Sosa added one of his two hits. The Flames sent seven batters to the dish in the ninth. Alvarez and Sosa singled in the inning. Alvarez and Chris Warters scored in the inning and Rodriguez picked up a RBI with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Flames had their chances to score in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. Warters opened the 11th inning with a triple. Sosa walked and the Flames had runners at first and third with nobody out. The potential rally ended with a Reinhardt double-play.
Coach Mark Brew was openly disappointed with the efforts of his club. "The way we played today is the very reason we finished third in the conference this year. I could tell in batting practice that our guys were way too nonchalant and taking the game too lightly. On the other hand, Reinhardt realized they were playing for their tournament life. We burned a lot of pitching and I promise you it's a long way back through the loser's bracket to win an eight-team tournament."
Brandon Cunniff pitched the first 4 2/3 innings and allowed only one hit. He struck out six, but walked five. Justin Frazier pitched 1/3 of an inning, while Jeff Ibarra came on for 2/3 of an inning. Ibarra was troubled with control problems and walked three Eagles. Josh Rose joined Cunniff with solid performances. In 2 2/3 innings, Rose gave up three hits, no earned runs and struck out two. Lopez pitched the final three innings. He allowed just two hits but the hit batsman and Flick's game-winning hit spoiled the senior's effort.
On the other hand, Reinhardt coach Bill Popp got four innings from freshman left-hander Matt Barger. He allowed just one earned run and struck out eight. Drew Tyson was also effective with 2 2/3 innings, but it was left-hander Daniel Hester who came on to shut the Flames down in the final two innings and picked up his fifth pitching win of the year.