By Noah Grant / Sports Reporter / @noahgrant_23 / Winter Haven, FLA

-St. Cloud State baseball fell to Wayne State (MI) 6-5 in a wild, four hour affair on Tuesday in Winter
Haven, Florida. The marathon game went 15 innings, and goes down as one of the longest games in
program history. The Huskies erased three different leads, tying the game in the first, sixth, and ninth
innings, before their rally in the bottom of the 15th came up just short.

The Warriors would open the scoring in the top of the first, bringing home a pair of runs including a leadoff home run by Ty Garza on the third pitch of the ballgame. The Huskies would answer back immediately, however, in the bottom of the frame. Redshirt junior Hayden Frank walked and redshirt junior Josh McGuin singled to put runners on first and second. Both would advance on a sacrifice bunt, and score ona two out single from redshirt senior Liam Moreno.

Another solo home run, this one from Bennett Hitzelberger, would put Wayne State back in front 3-2 in thefifth. This time, it would take the Huskies one inning to respond, as SCSU evened things up in the sixth. After back-to-back singles from senior Wyatt Tweet and junior Wilmis Castro, a fielder’s choice and a Husky caught stealing left Tweet on third base with two outs. For the second straight game, redshirt senior Eric Bello picked up an RBI double to bring home Tweet.

The Warriors retook the lead in the top of the seventh after two walks, a single, and an error. Wayne State would hold the lead until the bottom of the ninth, when the Huskies managed to rally back. Moreno opened up the ninth by beating out a ground ball for an infield single. Things looked dark for SCSU when the next two batters flied out, but the Huskies worked back-to-back walks to load the bases.

With Ethan Frank facing an 0-2 count, the Huskies were down to their final strike. The next pitch skipped to the backstop and Liam Moreno advanced to score and tying run.
The bullpens settled in and traded zeros in extra innings. The Huskies allowed a couple hits but held
Wayne State off the scoreboard thanks to great defensive plays from Moreno and Frank. Freshman
Brayden Simones pitched four scoreless innings out of the Huskies ‘pen.

The Warriors would finally break the deadlock with a two-run homer from Drew Hill to right in the top of the 15th inning. Once again, however, the Huskies would push back. SCSU loaded the bases on three straight walks with no one out. After a strikeout, Tweet bounced out to shortstop, scoring freshman Brayden Steinbecker who made his NCAA debut as a pinch runner.

Castro walked to reload the bases, but Moreno hit a groundball that second baseman Nick Sandiha Jr. made a sliding stop and flipped to second for the forceout to finally end the game.
It was the first extra-inning game of the year for SCSU. The matchup is believed to be the longest (by
innings) in SCSU program history since May 2, 1993, when it took the Huskies 15 innings to pick up a 6-5 walk off win over NDSU.

The Huskies return to action on Wednesday in their final day at the RussMatt Central Invitational in Florida. SCSU takes on Minnesota Duluth at 10 a.m. EST/9 a.m. CT, and Davenport (MI) at 1:30 p.m. EST/12:30 p.m. in a doubleheader to close out play in the Sunshine State. Both games will be broadcast on the KVSC Sports Stream with Noah Grant on the call.

Photo credit: SCSU Athletics.