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NCAA Baseball Tournament: It Only Took 21 Innings To Decide Kent State-Kentucky

Before you read further, listen to the entirey of this song. Then you'll understand.

So, rather large day for Kent State. Their golf team won a sudden-death playoff over Florida State in the morning (only to be eliminated by Alabama later in the day in match play), then in the opening game of their NCAA regional the baseball team beat Kentucky in Gary, Indiana by a 7-6 margin, and it only took 21 innings — the second longest game in NCAA tournament history.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 R H E
Kent State 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 7 20 1
Kentucky 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 6 18 1

Absolutely silly. I'm amazed it fits on the page.

As you can see, KSU blew one-run leads in the ninth and 18th innings, then broke through in the 21st inning on a Alex Miklos triple. The box score is rather ridiculous. 182 batters came to the plate, combined for both teams. Kent State first baseman George Roberts went 5-for-10 in the game and Golden Flashes pitchers hit a total of six Kentucky batters in the game. At one point they were a ball away from walking in the winning run.

Other insanity in this game: in the 18th inning, UK catcher Michael Williams cranked a double that tied the game and potentially won it, but Kent State center fielder Evan Campbell began a tremendous relay to Jimmy Rider to David Lyon that threw out A.J. Reed at the plate. Reed, who made the SEC All-Freshman team as a first baseman and DH, moved to pitcher in the 13th inning and threw the final nine innings.

Kent State goes to the winner's bracket and plays the winner of Purdue/Valparaiso, whenever the heck they finish that game.