In a game that took just shy of 4.5 hours to complete, it was Tyler Ellis who was the hero blasting a walk-off moonshot deep into the night in left field to send Lou Brock Sports Complex into a frenzy and cap a wild come-from-behind 14 inning victory for Lindenwood baseball over Bradley.
Lindenwood (11-14, 1-2 OVC) beat Bradley (3-17, 0-3 MVC) 12-11 in 14 innings coming back from down 11-4 with a seven run bottom of the ninth to send the game to extras where Ellis was able to walk it off in the 14th.
Zach Buschschulte got the win (2-2) for Lindenwood pitching 2.0 innings out of the bullpen and was the eighth pitcher on the night for the Lions. Kris Alcorn started the game but only lasted 3.0 innings giving up six runs on five hits while walking four.
Tyler Thompson and Charlie Isom-McCall each had three hits in the win and combined for five RBI’s. Four other Lions had multiple hits and seven different players drove in a run.
Bradley got on the board in the first after back-to-back two out walks Mitch Ball launched a three run homer to left field putting the Braves up 3-0. Filip Sarota got Lindenwood on the board in the bottom of the first with an RBI groundout to the pitcher scoring Isom-McCall.
Timmy O’Brien blasted a home run of his own to right-center to put the Braves back up three at 4-1 in the top of the second. A sac fly from Isom-McCall after a Kam Edwards triple cut the lead back to two in the bottom of the third before the Braves put up another three spot in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Jackson Smith and back-to-back sac fly’s by Cole Smith and Mason Breidenbach gave the Braves a commanding 7-2 lead.
Another homer from Ball and a sac fly from Weston Gingerich put Bradley up 9-2 as Lindenwood pitchers continued to struggle and the Lions offense struggled to get going against Braves starter Drew Politte who ended up going 7.1 innings giving up four runs, three earned, on six hits, with three walks and four strikeouts.
An RBI triple from Isom-McCall followed up by an RBI single from Tanner Simpson cut into the Braves lead at 10-4 in the bottom of the eighth. Lindenwood found themselves down 11-4 in the bottom of the ninth after Bradley executed a perfect double steal to manufacture a run.
The Lions rally in the bottom of the ninth began with Ellis crushing his first home run of the year. After a Thompson double, Jack Meyer stepped up to the plate and launched his first moonshot of the year over the left field wall cutting the lead to four at 11-7. Edwards tripled home Mitch Cummins before Isom-McCall drove him home to cut the lead to 11-9. Simpson laced a single of his own and advanced into scoring position with two outs on a wild pitch. After Ellis drew a walk in his second at bat of the inning, Thompson walked up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded and the tying run on second base.
Thompson took first pitch for a ball and then got a pitch he could hit and lined into right center dropping in for a hit scoring Isom-McCall and Simpson to tie the game but was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw sending the game to extra innings. Easton Rackers came into pitch for the Lions in the tenth and went 2.2 innings, giving up no runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts out of the pen.
Lindenwood had a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the tenth as after back-to-back walks to start the inning they would eventually load the bases with two outs but Braves pitcher Gavin Thompson would get Simpson to strike out swinging to end the threat.
Both offenses would go cold in extra innings as the pitching staffs for either side buckled down and weren’t breaking as the game kept on chugging along into the 11th, 12th, 13th and eventually into the 14th inning.
Buschschulte would work around runners on first and second with one out by inducing a fielder’s choice followed up by inducing Bobby Atkinson to pop out to Evan Funkhouser at short to end the threat sending the game to the bottom of the 14th.
Ellis led off the bottom of the 14th and after getting fooled on a breaking ball to start the at bat, Ellis jumped on a fastball crushing it high, far and deep into the night in left field sending the stadium into pandemonium walking off a wild 12-11 14 inning affair,
Lindenwood will stay home for a weekend Ohio Valley Conference series against UT Martin March 28-30 with the games on March 29-30 starting at 1 p.m. and first pitch of the game on March 28 beginning at 3 p.m.
