coxfan
04-28-2012, 08:28 AM
I have just seen one of the strangest baseball outcomes I've ever seen in 55 years of following baseball. Thursday night the South Carolina Gamecocks, the two-time defending National Champions and currently ranked # 7, were hosting Alabama (having a bad year) on ESPNU. SC's pitcher was Michael Roth, who was this years cover boy on "Baseball America"s college preview and a hero in both the 2010 and 2011 College World Series. Opposing him was a Bama freshman named Spencer Turnbull, making his 7th college start.
A mismatch, right? But this is baseball, and Turnbull had a no-hitter through 7 innings. The Gamecocks haven't been no-hit since 1990, and Turnbull seemed to be getting stronger! The Gamecock hitters acted as though they could barely see his pitches, much less hit them. But Roth also had a 4-hit shutout going, so the score was 0-0 entering the 8th.
Then a sudden lightning strike, with a thunderclap so loud and quick that it had probably hit less than a mile from the stadium. (There'd been distant lightning, but the storm conditions developed in the stadium area with unexpected suddenness). Of course the game was stopped and the stadium's 7,000-plus fans evacuated, per NCAA rules. The lightning storm raged for hours, forcing the umps to suspend even though there was a pending no-hitter and a 0-0 score.
When the suspended game resumed the next day at 5 PM, both starters had to be replaced because of the long delay. The Gamecocks then hit the first pitch they saw for a HR. It was their only hit of the game but won the game 1-0.
The Gamecocks then won game two by 12-11 score, on a walkoff two-run bloop single in the 9th though trailing 11-9 entering the inning. But that seemed anti-climatic after the weird finish to game one. That's the first time I've seen a no-hit bid broken up, and a 1-0 win on a single hit, thanks to a well-timed ( and well-placed) lightning strike!
A mismatch, right? But this is baseball, and Turnbull had a no-hitter through 7 innings. The Gamecocks haven't been no-hit since 1990, and Turnbull seemed to be getting stronger! The Gamecock hitters acted as though they could barely see his pitches, much less hit them. But Roth also had a 4-hit shutout going, so the score was 0-0 entering the 8th.
Then a sudden lightning strike, with a thunderclap so loud and quick that it had probably hit less than a mile from the stadium. (There'd been distant lightning, but the storm conditions developed in the stadium area with unexpected suddenness). Of course the game was stopped and the stadium's 7,000-plus fans evacuated, per NCAA rules. The lightning storm raged for hours, forcing the umps to suspend even though there was a pending no-hitter and a 0-0 score.
When the suspended game resumed the next day at 5 PM, both starters had to be replaced because of the long delay. The Gamecocks then hit the first pitch they saw for a HR. It was their only hit of the game but won the game 1-0.
The Gamecocks then won game two by 12-11 score, on a walkoff two-run bloop single in the 9th though trailing 11-9 entering the inning. But that seemed anti-climatic after the weird finish to game one. That's the first time I've seen a no-hit bid broken up, and a 1-0 win on a single hit, thanks to a well-timed ( and well-placed) lightning strike!