May 26, 2011

Box Score

Photo Gallery via the Southern Conference

Charleston, S.C. - Ross Heffley sparked a three-run rally in the top of the 20th inning with a two-run homerun over the fence in left center to lead eighth-seeded Western Carolina to an upset of the top-seed Elon, 10-7, Wednesday night in the 2011 Bennett Hospitality Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by the Carolina Ford Dealers.

The 20-inning game was the longest baseball game played in SoCon history. It surpassed WCU's school-record of 16 innings set less than two weeks ago in a road win at Furman in 16 innings.

Western Carolina moves on to play the winner of the No. 4 Georgia Southern and No. 5 College of Charleston game Thursday evening at 9 p.m. Elon (36-20) falls in the consolation bracket and will face the loser of the Cougars and Eagles at 1 p.m.

"That's the longest game I've ever been a part of as a coach or player. I've seen a lot of extra inning games but that was crazy," said WCU head coach Bobby Moranda during post-game comments. "You just have to be happy we won the game. Our guys battled showed a lot of toughness, a lot of heart and I am just really proud of our program and our guys - especially our seniors."

WCU opened the 20th inning with a lead-off walk by freshman Macon Smith ahead of Heffley. The Snellville, Ga., native then drove a full-count pitch out of the ballpark for the 9-7 lead. The Catamounts would add an insurance run later in the inning when Aaron Attaway delivered a bases-loaded single through the left side plating Adam Martin.

Taking a 10-7 lead in to the bottom half of the inning, reliever Taylor Sandefur retired the side in order to secure the win for Western Carolina. The game, which started at 5:07 p.m., ended at 11:40, spanning a combined six hours, 33 minutes.

Heffley finished with two extra base hits in a 2-for-10 performance at the plate, also driving in a run on a double down the left field line in the third inning.

"I can't say enough about our pitchers. They pitched their tails off and kept giving us chances," said Heffley following the game. "I was just trying to see the ball. I felt like I was letting the team down early and was finally able to barrel a ball late in the game."

Western Carolina (23-29-1) used five pitchers, two of whom threw over 100 pitches in the game. Starting pitcher Matt Benedict pitched eight innings, tossing 131 pitches. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native struck out three and allowed five runs, three earned, on six hits and five walks. Brandon Johnson threw 113 pitches for the Catamounts, fanning a career-high 10 batters and allowing only two runs on three hits in 5.2 innings of work. Sandefur picked up the win to improve to 2-3 on the season.

Lost in the shuffle was the outing of Kyle Deese who tossed four and a third innings of shutout, one-hit relief out of the bullpen, striking out a career-best six. All told, WCU's pitchers recorded 20 strikeouts in the game to set a tournament record.

Elon rotated eight pitchers throughout the game, five of which went for at least three innings. David Whitehead picked up the loss for the Phoenix to fall to 6-2. Whitehead led all Elon pitches with 5.0 innings on the mound and seven strikeouts.

After trailing four times through the first six innings, Western Carolina took a pair of leads in extra innings only to see the Phoenix rally back to knot the game and continue the record-setting affair. WCU first baseman Tyler White knocked his fifth hit of the game in the top of the 14th with a single that gave the Catamounts their first lead of the game at 6-5.

However, with Elon seemingly down to its final two outs, Niko Fraser tied the game for the fifth time with a single to left field that brought Matt Kirchner, who reached based on a hit by a pitch.

White, who went 6-for-7 with two runs and one RBI, set a tournament record with six hits in a game.

In the 19th inning, Attaway connected on a swinging bunt down the third base line to score the go-ahead run with Martin and give Western Carolina the 7-6 lead momentarily. However, Elon would extend the game in the bottom of the inning when Grant McCoury grounded out to second base, but knocked in the tying run as Cyle Rasmus crossed home setting up the heroics in the 20th.

Elon (36-20) scored single runs in the first three innings with Western Carolina responding with solo runs in the second, third and fourth innings, as the game remained tied 3-3 until the sixth inning when the Phoenix score two runs to take the lead.

Western responded in the eighth inning with two more runs, one of which was unearned, to even the game 5-5 and send the game to extras. A costly Phoenix error on a low throw to first allowing the game-tying run to cross helped continue what proved to be the historic game.