The Road to Omaha: NCAA Baseball Tournament Thread

I didn't think this was worth a new thread, so I figured I'd put this where it fit most logically.

Visiting my hometown paper this weekend, I discovered that the record Texas and Boston College broke for the longest game in college baseball history was set in 1971 by my alma mater (nine years later I was on the team) and its arch-rival.

They played 23 innings. The good guys lost 6-5. They scored a run in the top of the 17th, only to see the bad guys extend it in the bottom of the inning. Same deal in the 21st. Three double plays in the game, all by the bad guys.

The starting pitcher for my alma mater? He went 17 innings.

"He was developing a blister, and he got aggravated when I pulled him out," the coach was quoted as saying to a columnist who wrote a great piece about the game right after Texas and BC broke the record.

"He said, 'I could beat their ass,' and he had gone 17 innings."

Later, the coach speculated what would happen if he were still in coaching and allowed one of his players to pitch 17 innings.

"I might get fired on the spot," he said. "But if I was coaching today and he wanted to pitch that long and wasn't hurting, I'd let him pitch."

The starting pitcher for the bad guys pitched 18 innings. Eighteen.

Oh, and it was the first game of a doubleheader. They played the second game. Good guys won 13-10.