Aggie baseball comes from 6-0 down in the ninth to stun Bakersfield
Down to the last strike, Mark Wolbert delivers game-winning home run
Down 6-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning and then down to their final strike, the UC Davis Aggies rallied for an improbable, impossible 7-6 win over Cal State Bakersfield Thursday afternoon before a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 1,010 at Dobbins Stadium on the UCD campus.
The final, fatal blow was delivered by Mark Wolbert, who crushed a 1-2 fastball over the rightfield fence with pinch-runner Leighton Helfrick aboard and was greeted with an ice bath from his celebrating teammates as he crossed home plate.
The Big West Conference win over the stunned Roadrunners moves the Aggies to 28-26 on the season and keeps alive their hopes of both a winning record and a 30-win season in the third year of the Tommy Nicholson era.Â
Bakersfield slips to 14-37.
The two will meet again Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Dobbins, then conclude the regular season with a 1 p.m. game Saturday. Neither team is playoff bound.
Bakersfield starter Ryan Verdugo was cruising along with a masterful two-hitter entering the ninth as the Aggies failed to mount any sort of a rally in their first eight chances at the plate.
However, things went badly for Verdugo right from the get-go in the bottom of the ninth.
Tyler Howard opened the inning with a single, then Jack Gallagher doubled down the leftfield line. It looked as if Verdugo had lost his dream of a complete game shutout, but certainly not the game itself.
Damian Stone then doubled down the rightfield line, scoring Howard and advancing Gallagher to third. Gallagher scored on a wild pitch that sent Stone to third and it was 6-2. Better than 6-0, certainly, but still a tall mountain to climb.
Riley Acosta was caught looking at a 3-2 pitch that Aggie partisans thought should have been ball four, and there was one out.
Nick Leehey reached base on an infield error, scoring Stone to cut the deficit to 6-3, sending Bakersfield head coach Jeremy Beard to the mound to replace Verdugo with Davis Villegas.
Nick Iverson greeted Villegas with a double down the leftfield line, moving Leehey to third and bringing the tying run to the plate in the person of Ryan Lee.
A wild pitch scored Leehey to make it 6-4 as Iverson scrambled to third.
Lee ultimately grounded out to shortstop, but Iverson scored easily on the play to trim the margin to 6-5 as Wolbert - Mighty Mark on this day - strode to the play.
After a ball and a strike, the lefthanded Wolbert swung mightily, but missed, and the Aggies were down to their last strike. Close, perhaps, but no cigar.
Wolbert had other ideas, sending the crowd into a frenzy with a powerful shot just out of the reach of a leaping Jared Bujanda McConnell in deep right and the celebration was on.
A late-season college baseball game, contested between two teams who had long ago been eliminated from championship consideration, turned out to be perhaps the best game of the entire season.
For UC Davis at least.
Reach me directly at bobdunning@thewaryone.com. I would love to tell you more about this thrilling ending.
Great story and amazing photos!
Another game Friday at 2:30 and yet another Saturday at 1 p.m.
Seniors will be honored on Saturday. Should be an emotional day.