HAVERFORD, Pa. - After 16 innings and five and a half hours, the Haverford College baseball team finally prevailed over Centennial Conference foe Dickinson College, 17-16 on Saturday afternoon at Kannerstein Field.
The Fords (9-9, 2-1 CC) and Red Devils (15-3, 1-1) were tied for the final eight innings until Haverford finally broke through in the bottom of the 16th frame. After senior Nick Miranda's leadoff single and steal of second, sophomore George Hatamiya nailed a base hit through the left-side. Miranda raced home from second and slid in safely before the throw, embracing the walk-off win with his teammates, who were already rushing onto the field.
The 16-inning game is tied for the second longest in Centennial Conference history and set many conference records. Miranda's nine at-bats is a new conference best for most at-bats in a single game by one player. Both teams had 84 plate appearances each, a new Centennial record, and the combined 168 plate appearances shatters the previous league record of 133, set in 1995 by Haverford and Franklin & Marshall. Haverford now owns the mark for most runners left on base in a game, 21, and the combined 41 runners left on base by both squads is a new Centennial record.
The game was a tale of two halves; the first half featured stellar hitting, and the second half highlighted shutdown pitching. In the first seven innings of the game both teams combined to knock in 31 runs. On the contrary, in the last nine innings the two squads combined for just two runs.
Haverford totaled 10 runs in the first three innings alone. A three-hit, five-run first was followed by a four-hit, five-run third for the Fords. Sophomore Nick Ott powered the home team in those innings, totaling a triple, a single, and four RBI's.
Dickinson responded by scoring five runs in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, and six in the fifth. The Red Devils registered 11 hits during that four-inning span and jumped out to a 14-10 lead.
The Fords were resilient, though, and crawled back into the game with a six-run, seventh inning. Haverford sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the seventh and had five different players knock in at least one run. Designated hitter Sam Kane's two-RBI single down the left-field line was the catalyst to the big inning.
Haverford tallied 71 team at-bats in the contest, a new conference record, and finished the game with 26 hits. Ott finished the day going 4-for-8 with five RBI's, while both Kane and Hatamiya had a pair of RBI's. Miranda led the Fords with four runs scored as the first four batters in the lineup accumulated 13 runs combined. Max Gerard picked up the win from the mound, going four innings while allowing four hits, no runs, and fanning seven batters. Patrick Falkoff pitched well for the Fords in the extra innings. The senior only allowed one run in five innings of work with three strikeouts.
The marathon match last over five and a half hours, forcing the teams to postpone Game 2 of the scheduled doubleheader due to the threat of darkness before the conclusion of the nightcap.
The Fords do not get any rest as they return to Kannerstein Field for a doubleheader with Johns Hopkins University tomorrow, April 6. First pitch of the twinbill is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.