The game that felt like it would never end finally got its conclusion. After being down 6-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning on May 8, one afternoon later, on May 9, the Tigers (22-26, 5-20 SEC) completed a miraculous comeback in walk-off style to earn a wacky and bizarre fifth Southeastern Conference win of their season, besting Vanderbilt 7-6 in 10 innings.
It was only fitting that the outfielder, who was in the midst (or mist to be technical) of the case of the missing baseball, hit
the walk-off single that clinched the extra inning victory.
After scoring six straight runs in the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers took a 7-6 lead to the bottom of the ninth inning. Then, fog-gate occurred. You can read about it here. The Commodores, after getting two runners on first and second, had two outs.
Braden Holcomb, who had homered earlier in the game, connected solidly on a 0-1 pitch from Sam Rosand. The ball went up in the air, and then chaos ensued as the game and the ball went quite literally up in smoke.
The umpires and the members inside the press box were unsure of where the ball had traveled. After Holcomb and the two runners ahead of him all crossed the base, the umpires gathered together. After 10 minutes or so, Holcomb’s hit was ruled a ground-rule double, tying the game up at 7-7 and marring this game in controversy as members of the Vanderbilt bullpen, a Commodores super-fan and Holcomb himself all felt the ball had traveled over the right field fence.
The ruling was final; play was suspended until Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., when the teams would pick up right where they left off amid the controversy over the clouded fog— 7-7 in the top of the ninth, two outs, runners on second and third, and Logan Johnstone coming up to the plate.
Juan Villareal came in for Mizzou relief pitcher, Sam Rosand, who had originally come into the game to close the top of the ninth on Friday. On a 2-2 pitch, Villareal worked his way out of the jam, striking out Johnstone to send the already long enough game into extras.
Missouri began the ninth with a rally, starting with Kaden Peer working his way to a lead-off walk. Keegan Knutson, after two failed bunt attempts, slapped a single to right field, moving Peer to third and putting runners on the corners for the Tigers with nobody out.
Situational hitting bit the Tigers once again. A fly-out, followed up by two straight strikeouts, ended the threat of a walk-off victory for the present moment.
Extra innings brings more chaos
The 6-foot-6 left-handed reliever came out for the 10th, and the inning started innocently enough with a lead-off groundout. Villarreal then faced some adversity, conceding a double down the left-field line to the player who later became the story of the inning, Rustan Rigdon.
Villarreal fought back, forcing a groundout, as the inning trended towards a climax with Rustan Rigdon moving to third with two outs. Of course, this game gave one that was even more suspenseful than necessary. Aukai Kea, the last hope of the inning for Vanderbilt, was facing a 1-2 count against Villarreal.
Rigdon did the unthinkable. He tried to take advantage of the slow windup of Villarreal and steal home and a run right under the Tigers’ noses. Only problem? The 1-2 pitch was deemed strike three, therefore negating Rigdon beating the tag of Mateo Serna. Every time this game appeared to have it all, it threw something else at the viewer.
The poetic walk-off hero
Donovan Jordan, on the infamous hit by Holcomb, did something interesting as the ball disappeared into the right-center field fog. He held his hands up, a gesture typically done by outfielders when a ball is in a place that cannot be grabbed.
Other Mizzou players in the field followed by doing the same, and suddenly the play that was originally a three-run inside-the-park home run turned into a game-tying ground rule double. Now in the bottom of the 10th, over 10 hours later, Jordan stepped into the box with Kam Durnin on second base and a chance to be the hero.
The first pitch to Jordan concluded the game in a way that storylines in sports are made of. A line drive walk-off single up the middle, ending a game that left a Vanderbilt side staring out to the field and a jubilant Tiger team mobbing Jordan on the field.
“I’d seen the heater, I was gonna cheat to the heater,” Jordan said on the SEC Network broadcast post-game. “It showed up, I was just on go.”
For a Missouri team that’s had its struggles in SEC play, fresh off a sweep against Georgia, this win, a most memorable of victories, gave Jordan the most important thing that left’ Pandora’s box. Hope.
“It just keeps us going, keeps us with hope and to have faith,” Jordan said. “To know we can come out next game and win another game and no one can turn the season off.”
