ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Ursinus College baseball team overturned a six-run deficit in Wednesday's non-conference clash with Muhlenberg at Coca-Cola Park, but the Mules scored the tying run in the ninth and walked off in the 10th with an 8-7 extra-inning thriller.
The matchup was originally intended to be a home game for the Bears on March 20. After that series was postponed, the teams agreed to play a Centennial Conference doubleheader at the home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Phillies. With rain in the area and the field needing to be tarped, the final result was a single non-conference contest, and the two sides squeezed out every last drop of drama.
Trailing 6-0 and needing four pitchers to get through the first two innings, the Bears (2-5) used their prolific bats and some fine relief work to seize an improbable lead on Dan Icaza's two-run homer in the fifth. Colby Chan smashed a two-run shot of his own to spur the comeback, and Connor Barrett added a pair of doubles.
Coach Stan Exeter gave the ball to Drew Fowler, giving the senior the chance to make his first career start within the confines of a professional ballpark. Fowler was the victim of some tough luck, making a nice 1-2 pitch to Mule leadoff man Ryan Hebert, whose defensive swing resulted in a perfectly placed infield single. Two pitchers and 11 batters later, the Bears had fallen into a 5-0 hole.
A hit batsman, a walk, and a seeing-eye single through the left side chased Fowler with a 2-0 deficit, and Muhlenberg tacked on three more runs before R.J. Grace came on to get out of the inning by inducing a slow roller to first base with the bags full.
Muhlenberg added another run in the second and had the bases loaded again when Brady Antolick came on and got an inning-ending grounder to Jared Minnichbach, who made a diving stop down the third-base line and got up to tag the bag. When the dust settled on the first two frames, the Mules had already sent its entire lineup to the plate twice.
Ursinus got on the board in the third, when Tom Snipes was awarded home plate on a balk after drawing a one-out walk and going to third on a double off the right-center field wall by Barrett. Chan followed with a towering two-run homer to left-center, his second of the season, to trim the margin to 6-3.
The Bears went right back to work in the fourth. Barrett blasted another double off the wall, this time in center, to score two more runs and pull Ursinus within 6-5. Icaza capped off the incredible turnaround with a two-run blast to left, the first home run of his career, in the top of the fifth to put Ursinus on top for the first time.
Neither team managed any more offense until the bottom of the ninth, when Will Peiffer came in from his outfield spot to try to close out the game. Muhlenberg had other ideas, tying the score on a fielder's choice grounder. The Mules loaded the bases with nobody out in the 10th and won it when Eric Gross' diving throw to the plate sailed wide.
Barrett, Chan, and Icaza each had two hits and two RBIs, while Peiffer also produced two hits.
The Bears' bullpen was sensational, with Antolick, Casey Murphy, and James Schuld combining for 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball. Murphy allowed one hit over two frames and Schuld put up two hitless innings in his season debut.