It takes 17 innings, but Evansville beats Wichita State 7-6

The baseball game that refused to end reached that level of stubbornness with plenty of encouragement.

Evansville’s 7-6, 17-inning win over Wichita State on Saturday afternoon (and evening) at Eck Stadium first could have ended – probably should have ended – eight innings earlier.

With two runners on base and two outs, Alec Bohm hit a foul ball near the third-base dugout. Evansville’s Troy Beilsmith struggled to judge it then dropped it, giving Bohm a second chance with a full count.

Bohm swung at the next pitch from Brandon Gomer and hit a no-doubt home run to tie the game 5-5. It was the last time either team would score until the 16th inning, as drama from Bohm’s homer turned to tension each time a runner reached base.

“I was just thankful I got another chance and I took advantage of it,” Bohm said. “I thought we were going to win it right there in that inning.”

That didn’t happen, as WSU (24-26, 8-9 Missouri Valley) didn’t restart the rally with two outs and the bases empty. No sweat, because in the 10th inning Noah Croft reached on a dropped third strike and moved to second on Trey Vickers’ sacrifice bunt.

Only the Shockers didn’t score then, either. They got runners into scoring position in the 11th and 14th innings, and the leadoff batter reached in the 13th but WSU fell short each time against an Evansville bullpen without the credentials of starter Connor Strain.

WSU had the bases loaded in the 10th before Travis Young and Luke Ritter notched consecutive strikeouts, one of several extra-inning threats that ended with a whimper.

“The thing about it was, we had so many chances to score and win the game that everybody was locked in the whole time,” Vickers said. “We kept having a runner on second base with one out or nobody out, so the energy was up the whole time. A game like that, you’ve got to try and keep going and outlast it, and try to do what you can to end the game.”

Evansville scored a single run in the first five innings to take a 5-0 lead, which lasted until the seventh inning, when Vickers homered. The Aces didn’t score again until the 16th and had one stretch of one hit in 31 plate appearances.

But 11 innings after its last run, Evansville broke through. Andrew Tanous’ double on the first pitch thrown by Adam Keller brought in two runs and put Evansville ahead 7-5. WSU was threatening again in the bottom of inning when Vickers hit a grounder to third that seemed ticketed for a game-ending double play.

Only Beilsmith misplayed it again and Willie Schwanke scored. One batter later, Jacob Katzfey’s single tied it 7-7 and left runners on first and second with one out. Again, though, Boyer and Young – WSU’s Nos. 8 and 9 batters – struck out consecutively.

“The bottom of the order wasn’t very good today,” WSU coach Todd Butler said. “We had a lot of (strikeouts) at the very bottom to turn the top of the order back over. I thought we competed well, we just fell short.”

Stewart Nelson’s leadoff homer in the 17th gave Evansville the lead again. Nelson was part of Evansville’s early surge, as he singled during run-scoring second and fourth innings.

“It’s definitely a long day at the yard,” Nelson said. “You’ve just got to find a way to stay mentally dialed in, because you never know when your time is going to come up and you’ve got to deliver in that situation.”

Willie Schwanke flied out as the winning run to end the game after six hours and 13 minutes. The ball that settled into the glove of right fielder Nate Reeder was the result of the game’s 539th pitch – 10 pitchers threw at least 20.

The teams combined to use 15 pitchers, who held every position player to three hits or fewer. There were 13 walks and 41 strikeouts to the 137 batters who stepped to the plate.

“We just ran out of luck, I guess,” Bohm said.

“We’ve just got to come out with a chip on our shoulder tomorrow and win the series. It’s a big game tomorrow and we’ve got to win it.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 9:14 PM with the headline "It takes 17 innings, but Evansville beats Wichita State 7-6."