Warriors go down in Inning 15
Copyright The Trib

There was a little-league home run, a scarcely seen scoring sequence and the ejection of two Gonzaga coaches along with a player. And all this transpired before the seventh-inning stretch.

The first one, that is.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" blared two times over the Harris Field PA on Thursday, a facetious statement in a contest that drug on like a doubleheader but didn't take quite as long to play.

This contest, the opener of the 51st annual Banana Belt tournament, covered nearly 4 1/2 hours and 15 innings, matching it with the longest game in the recorded history of Lewis-Clark State baseball.

That would be the most memorable aspect of it from the Warrior perspective, since Gonzaga prevailed 8-7.

L-C continued to labor with its offensive production, scoring only once following the sixth inning. That run, coming off D.J. Kooken's sacrifice fly to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, was unearned. And so were the Warriors' first three.

"We're not hitting well at all," said Ed Cheff, whose team had 12 -- one less than Gonzaga -- but only five after the sixth. "Some guys are lacking the toughness and confidence they need at the plate, and it's just a struggle."

Gonzaga, meanwhile, was flush with scoring opportunities. The Bulldogs, who drew four walks, had three batters hit by pitches and reaped the benefit of four L-C errors, stranded 15 baserunners, 10 of them in scoring position -- including four in extra innings.

"We weren't very efficient. We didn't take advantage of guys we had on (base) or pitch counts that were in our favor," Gonzaga coach Mark Machtolf said. "But we finally got a big hit."

That came from Jackson Brennan with one away in the Zag 15th. After leadoff batter Scott Campbell was plunked by Mike Miller (1-1) and sacrificed to second, Brennan, who belted a two-run homer in the second, doubled into the right-center gap.

Nic Benton singled with two down in the bottom of the 15th -- five of L-C's six extra-inning baserunners reached with two outs -- but Cory Powell, Gonzaga's fifth pitcher, got a game-ending groundout from Mark Thompson.

L-C "made us work for it, but it was good to get back in the win column," said Machtolf, whose team, now 8-6, had lost its previous four games. "That's the kind of game that's tough to watch from a distance."

Machtolf was relegated to a removed vantage point after being ejected in the fifth inning. He had questioned plate umpire Joe Stegner on a fair-ball ruling of a bunt by Thompson down the first-base line.

Then in the seventh, Stegner threw out a Gonzaga player and assistant coach after calling a strike on Zag batter Ryan Wiegland.

L-C, which didn't trail until Zach Woodward's home run to lead off the ninth put Gonzaga up 7-6, scored twice in the first in a preposterous manner. Following Thompson's single, Matt Vogel pushed a sacrifice blunt to the left side. Bobby McEwen, the Bulldogs' starting pitcher, fielded it then threw wildly to first. Thompson scored before Woodward, the right fielder, even got the ball, and the speedy Vogel easily beat the throw to the plate.

Another McEwen error, this on an errant pickoff attempt, led to a run in the third that made it 3-2 L-C.

But Gonzaga squared things in the fourth, even though it appeared the Warriors had gotten out of the inning unscathed. With one down, two baserunners on and Jeff Duda having just replaced L-C starter Shannon Wirth, Darin Holcomb smacked a drive to deep right field. Jessie Roehl, who apparently had trouble initially locating the fly, made an over-the-shoulder catch just in front of the wall and quickly rifled the ball to first, doubling off Campbell.

But Tyson Van Winkle, who was at third, tagged up and scored before the third out was made.

Cheff, who discussed the sequence with Stegner, acknowledged afterward the ruling was correct. The only question was whether Van Winkle had properly tagged up.

"It may not have made any difference," Cheff said, "but we should have appealed."

NOTES -- Two Banana Belt games are on tap today at Harris Field. L-C will play Chicago State at 2 p.m., followed by Gonzaga and Washington State at approximately 4:30. ... The Warriors' other documented 15-inning game dating back to 1971 was a 6-5 loss to WSU on March 1, 1986. That game, interestingly enough, took place in Las Vegas as part of the UNLV's Desert Classic.