Northmont (9-16) broke the tie in the top of the 15th inning. A single by Ben Zink scored Anthony Neesen. In the bottom of the inning, Zink retired the side in order to earn the victory.
“When you’re in the midst of it, you just want to win the game,” Kincaid said Friday, “and you’re just concentrating on that. Then once you get past like 10 innings and to the second day of it, it reminds you of that Wimbledon match where they didn’t have the tiebreaker and played like 60 games or whatever it was. You’re reflecting on that and you hope you’re on the winning side of it, but even then you just have an appreciation for how hard the kids competed in every moment.”
The game tested both coaches, who combined to use 26 players. Both pitchers who started the game April 7 — Northmont’s Zink and Fairmont’s Will Holt — returned to pitch Wednesday.
“We had used guys in the first eight innings, whether it was to pinch run or pinch hit, and it had been a while since we played that game,” second-year Fairmont coach Matt Adams said. “So in the second part of it, I’m going through the lineups and seeing who we had available. I’m like, ‘Man, we don’t have many guys available left to play.’ So we kind of had to grind out those last seven innings.”
In his recap, which he emailed to local media, Kincaid listed the key facts:
• There were more than 500 pitches thrown.
• There were 33 runners left on base.
• Six different umpires worked the game or reported for duty.
• The teams combined to make three bus trips.
The game was already memorable when it was suspended by darkness in the second week of the season. The teams hoped to play two days later, but rain forced them to move the game to the following Tuesday, April 13. On that day, they were scheduled to play for the second time in Greater Western Ohio Conference action. They did get in the scheduled game, but it lasted nine innings — Fairmont won 10-9 — and they decided to wait until the end of the regular season to try to continue the suspended game.
Finally, on Wednesday, the game picked up where it left off, but no one could break through for the go-ahead run.
“In the last five innings, there were guys on base every inning,” Kincaid said. “It could have ended any of those innings, and it didn’t. They just kept finding ways to get outs and make plays. That was really cool to see. It was really was a shame that somebody had to lose that game.”
“It’s definitely one you don’t want to come out on the losing end of,” Adam said, “but at the same time, they were on the losing end the first time.”
Kincaid, a 1997 Northmont graduate, has been coaching in the program since 2003. This is his third season as head coach. He had never been involved in a 15-inning game.
“I was an assistant coach with Chuck Harlow, our previous coach, and I think we went 11 innings one time,” Kincaid said, “but it was a quicker game. This game, it was like every inning a team could win it or blow the game open.”
About the Author
