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(photos courtesy of W&M Media Relations)
The last three outs often are the toughest for a pitcher, or pitchers to get. They also present a hitter, or hitters, a glimmer of hope, the thought that there’s still a chance.
Over the course of a college baseball season, teams have roughly 1,500 offensive outs to play with. The last three for trailing teams typically come in a Minor League park or rival school’s field, often times in front of sparse crowds of family and friends who have supported their ballplayer for the previous four years or, for parents, the past decade and a half. From the time their son was somehow the dirtiest player, bringing home half the infield dirt on their uniform, in T-ball and Little League All-Star games to the first out-of-state tournament in travel ball and that first showcase event when a college coach showed some interest, they’ve seen it all, and now, with three outs to play, there’s a finality to it.
But there’s still a chance.
On Saturday, second-seeded William and Mary trailed top-seeded UNC Wilmington 8-1 in the top of the ninth. The Seahawks, needing just three more outs, were poised to capture the Colonial Athletic Association championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tribe, tears beginning to form for some, frustration of falling short beginning to hit others, were primed to be sent packing for the season.
“I was talking to the second base umpire throughout the game,” W&M second baseman Cullen Large said of umpire Clint Lawson. “I told him it was nice getting to know you this year. We’ll see you next year.”
Tribe coach Brian Murphy said, “Obviously, if you’re down seven runs in the ninth inning, you don’t remember those fondly at the end of the day.”
This wasn’t one of those days.
The Tribe got a couple of hits before Large drove in a run to make it 8-2. Charlie Gould had a two-run double and the deficit was four. Kyle Wrighte had a single and Owen Socher and Ryan Hall each plated runs by being hit by pitches with the bases loaded and it was 8-7. Ryder Miconi, who earlier had one of those singles to get the hit parade going, added a sacrifice fly to tie things at 8.
“It was a slow build,” Murphy said. “I think we sent 12 guys to the plate and we had 11 productive at-bats…I guess a lot of guys knowing what was at stake and knowing we had no margin for error left.”
Large said guys started the inning hoping to get Gould, a senior from Lake Forest, Ill., one last at-bat. As the Tribe cut the lead to two or three runs, “It kind of set in, there was a little buzz in the dugout…we have a chance here.”
There’s still a chance.
“It was tied before we could even realize what had happened,” Large said. “We were bouncing around, we didn’t even care that it was raining. We didn’t care what was happening. There could have been a tornado coming through, we didn’t care.”
After W&M got three outs to force extra innings, stranding the winning run on third, Mother Nature had seen enough. Heavy rains ensued to the tune of about 5 inches of rain overnight, the kind of rain that typically cancels Little League or high school games for days. And the kind of rain that throws a wicked curve ball at a conference tournament.
“I think a lot of us assumed we weren’t going to play,” Large said.
Murphy added, “Overnight, it looked bleak.”
Murphy told his assistant coach Brian Casey to remind him to ask the conference to give him a heads up of a half hour if the tourney was canceled so he could talk to his players before they found out on social media.
The coaches, umpires, school administrators and conference officials met at College of Charleston’s Patriots Point ballpark on the banks of the Cooper River at 10 a.m. Sunday morning to go through the scenarios. If the tournament couldn’t finish – whether it be UNCW winning the title in the continuation of the Saturday game or having to crown a champion after the if-necessary game in the event of a W&M win in the continuation – by midnight, the higher-seeded Seahawks would be awarded the championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, whose pairings were to be announced Monday.
Surprisingly, the field was in pretty good shape. As Murphy began to realize playing on Sunday was a very real possibility, his players were finishing breakfast back at the hotel.
“At that point, we had no clue,” Large said. “Most of us were preparing to hear that our season was over. We were bracing for the worst.”
By 10:45, the Tribe players got word that they’d likely be playing. Shortly after, they were helping pull the tarp and preparing to play what could have been one inning or a full day of baseball.
There’s still a chance.
Twenty-seven hours and 29 minutes passed before the teams resumed the game in the top of the 10th inning. In the top of the 12th, Large launched the first homer of the day that would go down in William and Mary baseball history.
“I didn’t really know how to act,” said Large, who hit one homer in his high school career. “Oh wow, that actually just happened.”
The Tribe forced a second game with a 9-8 win, a win secured only when umpires called a baserunner interference on a play at first that negated the tying run and ended the game.
After three and a half more hours, they celebrated a 14-9 win, thanks in large part to Josh Smith’s grand slam that broke a 9-9 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning, part of a seven-RBI day for Smith.
The wins sent William and Mary to the Regionals, where they will play in Charlottesville, home of defending national champion Virginia, where Large likely will reconnect with a student named Daniel Buckley, the pitcher he hit his one high school homer off of who happens to help with stats as a student assistant for the Cavaliers’ baseball team. The losses no doubt hurt UNCW, but the Seahawks’ splendid year continues as well with a trip to the Columbia Regional.
“It was 100 percent the craziest baseball game I’ve ever played in,” Large said. “The two days were the craziest, hands down, no questions asked.”