A 21-inning college baseball game that took more than 24 hours to complete ended in controversial fashion.
University of St. Thomas, which was playing as the road team at home in St. Paul, Minn. against Northern Colorado as part of a makeup game, lost 8-7 on a walk-off balk called against pitcher Nolan Kemp on Saturday afternoon after the game started Friday and was suspended after 11 innings due to darkness.
The bases were loaded with two outs and a 2-2 count to Northern Colorado DH Brien Kenny when Kemp was called for the balk, allowing the winning run to trot home in the bottom of the 21st inning.
Kemp and his teammates were confused, but as explained on the Midco Sports Plus broadcast, “the first base umpire said that Kemp moved his front shoulder,” and the umpires did not bother deliberating to hear St. Thomas’ arguments.
The game was the longest in Summit League history and tied for the eighth-longest in terms of innings in NCAA Division I history.
This wasn’t exactly a battle of titans. The Bears were 8-29 after the win while the Tommies dropped to 6-24.
There weren’t an inordinate number of pitchers used despite the length of the game.
St. Thomas starter Brayden Olson gave up five runs (three earned) in 6 ⅓ innings. After Zak Endres pitched 3 ⅔ shutout innings, Sam Stockman entered and lasted 8 ⅔ innings, giving up two runs. Kemp didn’t allow a hit in his 3 innings of work but walked three before the deciding balk.
Northern Colorado also had a pitcher go 8 ⅔ innings in relief as Trevor Landen carried the load after Reece Wagner (six innings), Gus Allred (1 ⅔ innings) and Brady Hudson (2 ⅓ innings) got them into extras.
The marathon game was supposed to be the start of a four-game series over three days. St. Thomas led 11-3 in the next game on Saturday when it was suspended after eight innings and set to resume Sunday morning. A third game is set to be played after the second concludes.
