And how was your night? 15-inning loss to Virginia puts TCU in must-win mode
OMAHA, Neb. — Given the windy conditions and size of the ballpark, TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle wondered if the College World Series game against Virginia would ever end.
It took 15 innings, but Nate Irving and Daniel Pinero finally got the job done for the Cavaliers. Pinero’s sacrifice fly scored pinch runner Thomas Woodruff in the bottom of the 15th and sent the Horned Frogs to a 3-2 loss late Tuesday night.
It was the longest game, as measured by innings, since Southern Cal defeated Florida State 2-1 in 15 in the 1970 national championship game. Two other CWS games had gone 15.
This game went 4 hours, 51 minutes, making it the fourth longest by time.
TCU (48-17) will face Mississippi in an elimination game Thursday, with the winner matched against Virginia on Friday.
TCU pitchers retired every Virginia batter in extra innings before Irving’s fly to left to start the 15th got over Boomer White and bounced over the wall. Woodruff entered as a pinch runner and moved to third on Branden Cogswell’s sacrifice bunt.
Pinero fouled off two squeeze-bunt attempts before he lofted a fly to center. Cody Jones’ throw toward home never had a chance to get Woodruff.
Before that, TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said, “I was looking down the bench at our coaches (wondering) how is either team going to score. Until at least somebody comes out of the bullpen and gets tired enough just to leave one pitch up. Irving did a great job of working the count to 3-2.
“We had to give in to him with the wind blowing in, and he hit it hard enough and kept it low enough to get over Boomer’s head.”
Players on both teams, swinging the restricted bats that entered the game in 2011, struggled to gener- ate offense with the wind blowing in at up to 30 mph at TD Ameritrade Park.
“It’s hard to get offense when you’re facing that kind of pitching, especially ... I’ve got to be careful before I say some things about this ballpark that I’ll regret, but it’s just a trav- esty what we’ve done to college baseball,” Schlossnagle said.
Less than three weeks ago, TCU was involved in college baseball’s longest game this season when it beat Sam Houston State in 22 innings in the Fort Worth Regional.