Jimmy Buffet once sang, ‘It’s a strange situation, a wild occupation.’
Buffet’s lyrics to The Wino and I Know weren’t written in regards to baseball. Still, they could have easily applied to the sport as Southern Miss defeated Marshall 2-1 in an unusual 13-inning thriller on the day of the program’s annual Parrot Head Day to honor the now late singer.
“It’s baseball,” said Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander in his explanation of the game. “It’s crazy.
“Baseball is an unbelievable game, and so many things can happen.”
The Golden Eagles experienced a delayed walk-off celebration in the bottom of the 13th inning after Lawson Odom appeared to be thrown at home plate. However, Ostrander challenged the play, and after a six-minute delay, the umpires ruled catcher’s obstruction, making the run count to end the game.
“When you have a play like that, they are going to look at all the angles with it, too,” Ostrander said. “We had a challenge, so why not? Thankfully, we did that. It worked out in our favor.
“He was blocking the lane to the plate. The rule is that you have to give a clear lane for a slide and he was in the lane whether they got it right or wrong I don’t know. But I’m glad about the call they made.”
Odom and the rest of the Southern Miss (13-6, 2-0 Sun Belt) dugout erupted to run down Ozzie Pratt for driving in the game-winning run.
“It’s probably one of the craziest games I have ever played in,” Odom said. “I have never seen anything like that. They didn’t have anything like that in high school.
“It means we never gave up. They kept telling us in the dugout that this was our inning and don’t give up to keep fighting. We kept fighting and walked it off.”
Yet the buildup to the game’s end was perhaps just as exciting. Starting pitchers Billy Oldham and Marshall’s Bryce Blevin each had no-hitters going into the eighth inning. However, Oldham didn’t learn of the dual no-hitter until the seventh.
“I found out in the seventh inning when Jake Cook said it out loud, and then both teams immediately hit a home run,” Oldahm laughed.
“That was a crazy game. To go 13 innings was crazy, and the way it ended was unexpected.”
As the strange game of baseball would have it, Oldham gave up a solo home run in the top of the eighth just after learning about the traditionally unspoken baseball feat. But like Oldham, Belvins also gave up a solo home run in the bottom of the frame to Davis Gillespie to keep the game tied at 1-1.
“I was joking with (Cook) and said I’ll never forgive you for that,” Oldham said. “He said the whole side of the dugout had been talking about it the entire game there was no way we could jinx it. But that was the first time I heard it, and he was more towards in the middle of dugout. But we came up with the win, and at least they didn’t throw a no-hitter either.”
Oldham completed eight innings, struck eight batters, walked one and allowed one run off two hits. In Blevin’s outing, the Marshall (6-12, 0-2) left-hander lasted nine complete innings, struck out four batters, walked two and allowed one run off two hits in 90 pitches.
“Billy and (Marshall’s) guy had hitters on ice skates,” Ostrander said. “Our hitters were on ice skates. It’s funny we give up a solo shot, and then we get one.”
“(Blevins) was good,” Ostrander said. “He was plusing, minusing, spinning and changing speeds, then sticking an 85 mph heater in there, and that was enough.
“His tempo was really quick and made it another dimension of keeping it challenging. He did a great job, and I applaud that young man for sure.”
Colby Allen threw 4.1 clean innings as he gave up three hits, struck out seven batters and walked two with JB Middleton recording the final two outs to set up the bottom of the 13th inning.
“We had a building block moment today with figuring out how to win an extra inning game,” Ostrander said. “That was a positive growth moment, but we need to figure out another one, which is finishing a weekend off.”
Sunday’s first pitch is set for 4 p.m.
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