CARY, N.C. (May 25, 2010) – As if Kutztown University and Franklin Pierce University didn't get enough of each other during Sunday's nine hour marathon, they'll get an opportunity to spend more quality time with one another when the two schools meet each other in an elimination game Wednesday evening at the USA Baseball National Training Complex starting at 7 p.m.
The Golden Bears (42-14) beat the Ravens, 2-1, in 12 innings in a game that earned a mention on ESPN's SportsCenter and made national headlines across the country. The bizarre game featured a 68-minute lightning stoppage, four hour rain delay and a 22-minute power outage. However, none of that will matter as both teams are playing to keep their dream alive of winning a national championship and advancing to Thursday's semifinals against UC-San Diego, the top-ranked team in Division II.
A Kutztown victory would advance it to the national semifinals for the first time in program history.
“Hopefully this game won't take nine hours,” Kutztown left fielder Shayne Houck (Boyertown, PA/Boyertown) said. “We're excited to play and we're going out there to win. The good thing about playing Franklin Pierce again is we know what to expect and it should be a battle again. Hopefully we can pull it out.”
Before looking ahead, the Kutztown-FPU game has finally been put into historical context. It is believed to be the fourth longest non-suspended game in NCAA history. West Virginia State and Ohio Valley University played a contest that took 12 hours, 1 minute to complete. Tulane and Alabama played a game that finished 10 hours, 50 minutes after it started. Finally, Harvard and Delaware took 10 hours, two minutes to complete. The Kutztown-Franklin Pierce contest lasted 9:14.
The longest continuous NCAA contest is the 2008 game between Texas and Boston College that went 25 innings and lasted seven hours, 14 minutes.
Both teams set up the rematch by splitting their games on Tuesday. Franklin Pierce eliminated Minnesota State 6-2 and Kutztown lost to Southern Indiana, 7-1. It was Franklin Pierce's first victory in this round of the NCAA Championships since 2006. Phil Hendricks and Derek Ingui fueled Franklin Pierce's offense against the Mavericks by collecting three hits each. Ingui slugged a two-run homerun to start the Ravens' rally.
“It's going to be a tough game,” Kutztown's Corey Buletza (St. Clair, PA/Pottsville) said. “We beat them in the 12th inning Sunday and they're going to come out hungry to knock us out after we beat them. We have to be hungrier than them. We're looking forward to the challenge.”
Franklin Pierce (42-16-1) has swung the bats well in both of its games. The Ravens had 10 hits in the opening game against Kutztown and 11 hits against Minnesota State. Ingui has five hits in two games for the Ravens. Isaac Wenrich had three hits in the game against Kutztown.
Meanwhile, Kutztown's offense has struggled to score runs in its two games. The Golden Bears are batting .211 as a team, have crossed the plate three times and 14 of their 15 hits have been singles. Jared Frey (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) has Kutztown's only extra base hit of the NCAA Championships so far. Mike Kacelowicz (Orwigsburg, PA/Blue Mountain), who scored the winning run against Franklin Pierce off of a Brett Widger bloop single, had three hits Sunday night. Corey Buletza (St. Clair, PA/Pottsville) had three hits against Southern Indiana.
“We'll get it together so it's not a big deal,” Buletza said. “We'll find a way to put some runs up. We just need to put some good at-bats together. I think the biggest thing we have to do is have fun. The thing we have to realize is the hardest part was getting here, but now that we're here and we just need to go out have fun and play baseball.”
--KU--
