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Kinston survives longest game in CL history
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Frawley's hit wins it in 23rd inning
June 13, 2011 12:10 AM
David Hall
By DAVID HALL
Staff Writer
The handful of fans remaining at Grainger Stadium as things wound down in Sunday’s gloaming were offered free tickets to a future Kinston Indians game as a reward for their perseverance.
Casey Frawley’s reward was redemption, not to mention a chance to finally go home.
Frawley hit an RBI single with two outs in the 23rd inning — and yes, you read that correctly — to lift the Indians to an epic 3-2 win over Myrtle Beach in the longest game, in innings, in the 66-year history of the Carolina League.
Some 6 hours and 27 minutes after the 1:30 p.m. contest began, Frawley yanked a sharp, first-pitch grounder into left field to bring Roberto Perez home from third for the game’s first run since the Pelicans tied it at 2-2 in the ninth.
Of 33,610 games in league history, which dates back to 1945, none have gone longer.
“It felt like an eternity,” said Frawley, who finished 2-for-11 with six strikeouts after leaving the winning run in scoring position with two outs in the ninth, 11th and 16th innings. “I’m definitely glad we could come out on top.
“You felt like the game was never going to end,” he added. “The baseball gods wanted it to go on forever.”
The victory, in which Kinston batters struck out 32 times, was more than a novelty. It kept the second-place K-Tribe (32-29) alive in the Carolina League Southern Division race as the first half winds down.
First-place Myrtle Beach (36-27) holds a three-game lead over the Indians with eight games remaining in the half.
But the playoff race was dwarfed by the enormity of Sunday’s box score. The teams combined to use 15 pitchers — none of them position players, it is worth noting — who threw a total of 654 pitches.Kinston’s bullpen held the Pelicans scoreless over the final 14 innings, with left-hander Francisco Jimenez turning in five of them beginning in the 14th.
“What a hard-fought battle by both teams,” Myrtle Beach manager Jason Wood said. “It was just a great game. Some great pitching today. We kind of happened to be on this end of it.”
Among the notable box score lines: Perez, Kinston’s catcher, had the best offensive day for either team, going 4-for-9 with a fifth-inning solo home run.
At the other end of the spectrum, K-Tribe first baseman Doug Pickens crammed a slump into a single afternoon, going 0-for-9 to drop his batting average 16 points, to .188.
Adam Abraham, Kinston’s designated hitter, matched Frawley with six punchouts. Eight K-Tribe hitters struck out at least twice, and five of them at least four times.
David Paisano went 3-for-9 for Myrtle Beach, which had 12 hits to the Indians’ 14. Mitch Hilligoss and Santiago Chirino both went 1-for-8 for the Pelicans.
After Wood exhausted his DH with a ninth-inning substitution, his pitchers were forced to hit in the cleanup spot five times. They went a combined 0-for-3 with two sacrifice bunts.
Wood wasn’t alone. With his bullpen completely shot by the 23rd inning, Kinston skipper Aaron Holbert sent Abraham and third baseman Justin Toole to the bullpen to warm up. Had Frawley not come through with two outs, they were next.
To further complicate things for Holbert, his team opens a four-game series against Salem with a doubleheader today at 4:30 p.m.
Left-hander T.J. House and right-hander Clayton Cook will look to go deep into their starts to preserve the weary bullpen.
“We’ll hope House and Cook can do their jobs,” Holbert said. “We may be asking for (the parent Cleveland Indians) to send us some help.” [Fausto: Get on the bus; you're needed in Carolina] The Pelicans sent it to extras by doing what no team had done all season: They got past Kinston closer Preston Guilmet.
The All-Star right-hander, who hadn’t blown a save in 14 chances, surrendered three hits in 1 1/3 innings, including a game-tying RBI single by Hilligoss with two outs in the ninth.
On the play, left fielder Tyler Holt gunned down Chirino, who was trying to score from second, with a perfect throw home.
The teams spent the next 13 innings flirting with the plate but never touching it.
Kinston left 13 men on base after the ninth, including a bases-loaded chance with no outs in the 22nd that ended when Pickens hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
The Pelicans left seven on board in the extra frames, four of them in scoring position.
“I look at it as a game of squandered opportunities,” said Holbert, who put his hands on his head and said, simply, “Wow,” when he saw his team’s strikeout total in the box score. “I know both teams had them. I think we had more than they did, and we just didn’t get the job done in some good situations to win the ballgame.”
Chris Jones (2-0), a left-hander, earned the win with three one-hit innings of relief after entering the game in the 21st.
Kasey Kiker (1-2) started the 23rd and gave up a leadoff single to Perez, who was bunted to second by Toole, moved to third on a Holt chopper and scored when Frawley finally got the hit the Indians had awaited for hours.
The game’s historic significance wasn’t lost on Kinston’s players, many of whom participated in an 18-inning loss with low Class A Lake County during last season’s Midwest League finals.
At some point late in Sunday’s game, Frawley said he turned to Myrtle Beach center fielder Ryan Strausborger at second base and told him, “We’ll never play another game like this, most likely, for the rest of our lives.”
Indeed, the previous longest game in league history took place on July 5, 1998, when Wilmington and Danville played 21 innings.
Only eight league games have gone more than 18 innings.
“That’s absolutely a cool feeling just to be a part of history,” said Toole, who finished 3-for-8.
“It took long enough, but we finally got it done.”
Frawley said he erased his bad day from his mind as he stepped into the box for one final chance.
“At that point, in the 23rd inning, all that stuff doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s just that at-bat. I came up with a few opportunities prior to that and I didn’t come through, so I tried to buckle down and get that one.”
BUNTS: Kinston outfielder Bo Greenwell left the game in the first inning after being hit on the left hand while swinging at a pitch. He has a fractured pinky finger and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, Holbert said. ... The announced attendance was 1,179, though an unofficial count yielded about 120 fans as the game ended under the lights. ... Holt was ejected by plate umpire Kiff Kinkead in the 17th for arguing.