Texas enjoys a long weekend

The innings passed by in bunches, and so did the hours.

When it was finally over, Texas walked off the field victorious -- and exhausted -- after beating Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings on Saturday night in the longest baseball game in NCAA history.

Texas topped off its amazing weekend by scoring eight runs, including a walk-off grand slam, in the ninth inning to defeat Army, 14-10, on Sunday to advance to the super regionals, but most were still talking about Saturday’s marathon.

“Every inning, we felt like we had a chance to win it,” Texas second baseman Travis Tucker said. “And every inning, we thought we were going to win it. It ended up happening in the 25th.”

Tucker’s run-scoring single with one out in the top of the 25th helped Texas (43-13-1) put an end to the game that broke the old record of 23 innings, set in 1971 when Louisiana Lafayette beat McNeese State, 6-5.

Texas reliever Austin Wood pitched 13 innings, including 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before giving up a two-out single to Tony Sanchez in the 19th.

“In my 41 years of coaching, the effort by Austin Wood was the best pitching performance I have ever seen,” said Texas Coach Augie Garrido, the Division I leader in career victories. “Unbelievable.”

The game began at 6:02 p.m. local time Saturday and concluded 7 hours 3 minutes later at 1:05 a.m., with many of the 7,104 weary fans still in the ballpark. There were three “seventh-inning stretches” and the teams played nearly the equivalent of three full ballgames.

“I knew we were going to win as I ran down to first base,” Tucker said. “We scored one, and no way our pitchers were going to let them score in the bottom of the inning.”

Wood, who came on in relief of starter Chance Ruffin with one out in the seventh, got an out in the 20th before he gave up a single to Barry Butera and then hit Andrew Lawrence with a pitch. Wood was relieved by Austin Dicharry, who retired the next two hitters.

“I can’t believe I threw 13 innings,” Wood said. “I was tired, but we never doubted that we were going to win that game.”

Connor Rowe walked to lead off the top of the 25th for Texas and was sacrificed to second by David Hernandez. Rowe advanced to third on a wild pitch, and Tucker singled to center through the drawn-in infield for the go-ahead run against Boston College (34-25).

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this,” Boston College Coach Mik Aoki said. “In fact, nobody in college baseball has been part of anything like this.”

Tucker’s hit came in his NCAA-record 12th at-bat to tie a mark he now shares with teammate Michael Torres, who also had 12 at-bats.

Dicharry (8-2) pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for the win, striking out four and giving up one hit.

Boston College reliever Mike Belfiore tossed 9 2/3 innings, giving up three hits and striking out 11 before leaving in the 19th.

Boston College used eight pitchers, with Mike Dennhardt (5-2) taking the loss.

Boston College was eliminated earlier on Sunday when it lost to Army, 4-3.

“I’d like to compliment Boston College, obviously, what they did [Saturday] and then to come back and compete today like they did,” Army Coach Joe Sottolano said.