What Begins, Must End

Baseball 2009, Game 81: Wilson Tobs 5, Columbia Blowfish 1

Wilson Sloppiness: 6
Columbia Sloppiness: 11
Most batters in one inning: 7
Hitter of the Game: Zach Johnson, Wilson (rating: 25)
Pitcher of the Game: Jesse Hernandez, Wilson (rating: 109)
Time of Game: 2:23
Mid-game temperature: 89 degrees
Attendance: 750 (Level IV sporting event)

Baseball 2009, Game 82: Columbia Blowfish 7, Wilson Tobs 3

Columbia Sloppiness: 10
Wilson Sloppiness: 10
Most batters in one inning: 8
Hitter of the Game: Derek Smith, Columbia (rating: 43)
Pitcher of the Game: Erik Sommerville, Columbia (rating: 88)
Time of Game: 2:14
Mid-game Temperature: 72 degrees
Attendance: 250 (Level V sporting event)

On Monday night in Columbia, the Blowfish and the Wilson Tobs were set to start the bottom of the 3rd inning when lightning struck just outside Capital City Stadium. Then heavy rain came and quickly flooded Capital City Stadium. In Major League Baseball, the Blowfish's 1-0 lead would have been erased as the game would be replayed from the start.

But three days later, the Blowfish were still leading the Tobs 1-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd. What started had to be finished for the CPL's records. The Tobs took out their starter officially, as Jeff Brown who went the first two innings Monday was replaced by Jesse Hernandez. Hernandez struck out Shawn Glover to restart the game and would dominate in 5 innings pitched. The Blowfish on the other hand had pitched Tyler McBride the first three innings on Monday, and decided to bring him back for more on Thursday. This turned out to be a mistake, as it was clear that McBride wasn't ready for another outing. The Tobs scored two runs in their first chance back at him in the top of the 4th. When McBride left in the 6th, the Blowfish were now down 4-1. McBride just never had good control of his pitches on Thursday night. Hernandez who was fresher continued to dominate until after the 7th inning....

When another storm was approaching Columbia. People don't like playing baseball in the cold winter, but they don't seem to mind frequently stopping summer games caused by seemingly nightly storms. This storm did not have as much rain as Thursday, but there was plenty of lightning and high winds knocked out Capital City Stadium's power. It took an hour for the storm to clear, and another hour to bring the power back and the field back up to shape.

They could have called the game official through 7 and the Tobs winners, with the regularly scheduled game for Thursday played on June 26. But the teams were determined to finish this game that had begun early in the week, and the game was restarted just after 9:15 P.M. The Tobs were able to tack on another run in the 9th, and win 5-1.

Even though most fans had left already, the regularly scheduled contest set for 7 innings was played as well. Only about 200 fans were still there at the beginning of this new contest, with maybe about 50 fans there at the very end. The promotion might as well have been Free Ball Night, as fans could easily track down foul balls without other fans getting them. One kid literally was able to get somewhere from 5 to 10 foul balls.

And as one usher said, "We might finally get a win tonight and no one will be here to see it". The Blowfish this time jumped out on the Tobs, leading 6-1 after 2 innings. Starter Patrick Sullivan from USC did not have very good control late Thursday night, but Francis Marion's Erik Sommerville put in a solid relief performance. Closer Drew Mahaffey from the Citadel walked three straight batters in the 7th and final inning, but got out of it as the Blowfish held on for a 7-3 win.

The last game ended after 12:30 A.M. The Blowfish and Tobs both got a win that counted, but the stats they worked to keep from Monday's game have not showed up on the CPL website yet. Whether it was incompetence on the scorekeeper's part to send in the box scores or whether the power outage affected the electronic scorebook is unknown. But Derek Smith's perfromance in the 2nd game will not show up in his stats, which is a shame considering that aside from Thursday night he has been struggling this year. But as in many doubleheaders, the persistence from both teams led to a win for each.

Update: Attendance has been estimated by the Blowfish officially at 750 and 250 for the two games respectively, and the CPL now has the box scores. Therefore Smith's home run will finally show up for him in the official stats. This two day delay in the official reports is why I waited before writing a post on these games. Still behind in my report for last night's game in Florence.