May 30- Texas beats Boston College in a Record 25 Innings in a NCAA Regional game
2009- On this day in Sports History, the Texas Longhorns played the Boston College Eagles in an NCAA Regional game in Austin, Texas. The game lasted 25 innings which broke the NCAA record for longest baseball game in history. The game lasted just over seven hours. With the game being a NCAA postseason game, the pressure was high for all 25 innings. Texas, who was the fifth ranked team in the nation, ended up beating Boston College 3-2. The Longhorns scored first in the game by getting two runs in the second inning. Boston College then followed by scoring one run in the third and one run in the sixth inning to tie the game at 2-2. From then on, the two teams would remain scoreless for the next 18 innings. The two teams played two full baseball games without scoring a run. Each team had a couple chances to score but failed to do so until the 25th inning. The Longhorns led off the bottom of the 25th with a lead off walk. A sacrifice bunt and wild pitch would get him to third base. A RBI single by Travis Tucker would finally get another run across the board and end the game with Texas winning 3-2.
A game that went 18 scoreless innings had to have some excellent pitchers. Texas and Boston College both had outstanding pitching performances as neither team gave up a run for two full games. For Boston College, Mike Belfiore came into the game in the 9th inning and pitched 9 ⅔ innings. He struck out 11 batters while only allowing three hits. For Texas, Austin Woods went 12 ⅓ innings without giving up a hit. He pitched a total of 13 innings and went out of the game in the 20th inning after throwing 169 pitches. Both pitchers had incredible pitching performances and it played a large part in forcing the game to go 25 innings. The picture is of Austin Woods coming out of the game.
The NCAA Regional game between Texas and Boston College broke the NCAA record for the longest baseball game in history. It broke the previous record of a 23 inning baseball game between Louisiana-Lafayette and McNeese State in 1971. The previous longest NCAA Division 1 postseason game was in 1988 when Clemson beat Fordham 3-2 in 19 innings. The game also broke quite a few other single game NCAA records between the two teams.
The 25 inning game put both Texas and Boston College in a disadvantage in their next games. NCAA baseball regional games are played several days in a row. The 25 inning game came on Saturday, May 30th. Both teams had to play on Friday and both teams also had to play on Sunday. Since Boston College lost, they faced Army on Sunday afternoon in an elimination game and lost 4-3. Army went on to face Texas Sunday evening in the NCAA Regional Championship Game. Texas won the game 14-10 and moved onto the NCAA Super Regional. Texas then defeated TCU in game three of a three game series which put them in the College World Series. Texas went on to face LSU in the College World Series Final where they lost the series 2-1.
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Sources:
Press, Associated. “Texas Wins Longest Game in History.” ESPN, ESPN , 30 May 2009.
“Baseball Wins Longest Game in NCAA History.” University of Texas Athletics, University of Texas Athletics, 31 June 2009