What happens when you run out of space on your scoresheet during an extra-inning game? I found out when my Thunderchickens played John Brandeberry’s Missoula Ospreys after the Illowa APBA League All-Star weekend. In game 3, our teams played a full 25 innings before a full resolution.
Here’s Brando’s take on it…
Ospreys catch a chicken in the bottom of the ninth.
The T-Chicks were rolling along with a 5-0 lead going into the bottom of the eight, when Hudson runs out of gas. He hit the first 2 batters he faced (Mejia and Gardner), then Seager hits a single to load the bases. Myers grounds into a double play scoring Mejia and Devers grounds out to end the inning.
The T-Chicks in a non save situation decide to bring in Ryan a D to save an inning. The first 2 batters (Grichuk and Olson) get base hits. The Ospreys send up Cabrera to hit for the pitcher and he crushes the into the right field second deck to bring the Ospreys within one. Brosseau comes in for Panik and jerks one over the left field wall to tie the game. Two outs later Seager doubles bringing up Myers to hopefully win the game. No dice, he grounds out to end the inning. For the next 16 innings an Osprey claw never touches home plate.
Brando is correct. In hindsight, I was too eager to save some graded relief innings for later in the season. The IAL has pretty strict player usage limits (actual games, at-bats and innings) I brought in by D reliever, Ryan in the ninth inning to get a D appearance out of him. That led to the Osprey rally which tied the game. After the Thunderchicken bullpen was exhausted, I brought in D starter Tanner Roark. I would just let the dice fall where they may.
Well after a while, the Osprey bullpen was pretty much used up too but for somehow, neither team could score. Inning after inning went by and goose eggs appeared on the scoreboard.
…until the 25th inning. With one out and one on, Joey Wendle hit a homerun to provide the first offense by both teams in 16 innings.
Final Score: Thunderchickens 7 Ospreys 5
Stats of note
- Markakis went 0-7 AFTER coming in for defense in the 8th inning
- Wendle went 3 for 12 with double to go with the game-winning homerun.
- Yan Gomes went 2 for 11 but both hits were homeruns
- Craig Biggio went 3 for 8 with a homer and a double and three walks.
- Thunderchicken hurlers struck out 24 Osprey batters.
Most impressively, Tanner Roark (D) pitched the best game of his career. In relief, he allowed five hits in 11 scoreless innings. He struck out 11 Ospreys while walking four for the win. For what it’s worth, game starter Dakota Hudson did his part allowing just four runs and one run in eight innings (Ryan is really sorry about this, Dakota!).
You can see the full box score here.
Lessons learned
The scoresheet I use for my APBA games (you can download it here if you like) allows for 14 innings if needed. Of course, I rarely need to use all of them.
When that rare game happens that I hit the fifteenth inning, I am tempted to just fill in the results in the margin. Surely, someone (hopefully me) will score in the next two innings.
Don’t do that!
Take my advice. When your scoresheet reaches the end, grab a new sheet and fill in the names in the lineup field and continue from there. You’ll be glad you did.
When I got home, I ended up writing out game 3 on a new scoresheet (well, two scoresheets) so it was legible for me. There were markings in the margins on the right side and later in the game, I started writing on the left margin. I may have been doing the wrong way but I was committed to it!
The Thunderchickens ended the weekend at 68-58 and still very much in the playoff race. Thanks, Brando for the great game that my players will not forget soon!
Let’s not do it again, okay?
Awesome story. :-)
I now have my league scoresheet set up with extra innings on both sides so it’s a little easier to figure out when doing stats.