by Nate Loop
The Foresters found themselves in their second extra innings game in as many series, and once again needed two days to reach a conclusion. After 13 innings of baseball, the Blues finally punched through with the winning run, earning a 10-9 victory.
The teams combined for 19 runs on 32 hits. 16 total pitchers were used in the game, 9 from the Sters and 7 from the Blues, as the exhausted bullpens struggled to keep runs off the board. There were also a staggering 22 walks issued during the game.
The Foresters led for the majority of the game, scoring runs early and often. The Blues did their best to keep pace, as the scoreline was already 7-5 after four innings of play.
The starting pitchers, John Beck for the Sters and John Tiedemann for the Blues, each lasted just 3 2/3 innings of baseball.
The Foresters had a 9-7 lead going into the bottom of the 9th inning, but the Blues were able to tie it at 9 with their last chances of the game against Sters closer Hunter Lemke, who is usually as close to a sure thing as you can get.
Lemke began the inning with a groundout from Cody Dufrene. The blues bounced back, as an Alex Detz single was followed by a double from Keegan Dale. Bryan Peters hit a sacrifice fly to score Detz, making the score 9-8, with two outs and Dale at second base. Austin Grisham wasted no time in bringing Dale around to score, lacing the first pitch he saw into the outfield for the game tying single.
Both teams went quiet for the next three innings, and the game was called as the lights shut off after five hours of play.
The teams restarted the next day in the top of the 13th. After the Foresters failed to score, it was up Nick Palewicz, normally a starter, to keep the Sters in the game. However, the Blues tagged him up for three singles and a walk, with a walk-off single by Dale scoring Tanner Witt from third, and moving the Blues into first place in the CCL.
