Air Force erases 10-run deficit, but falls in 13 innings

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.- A wild ballgame that started, paused, resumed, and ended over the course of 22 hours provided as much entertainment as it did chaos. Air Force, trailing 18-10 in the bottom half of the 8th when play on Friday was suspended, proceeded to score eight runs in the inning upon the game's restart, though the Falcons eventually lost 19-18 in 13 innings.

"It ain't over til it's over, said Yankee great Yogi Berra," head coach Mike Kazlausky chimed. "We did fall short at the end, but we showed tremendous grit and fight to come back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit."

Air Force produced 24 hits to tie its Mountain West single-game high, including four home runs. Braydon Altorfer, whose Game One home run was his first of the season, slugged a pair of dingers in Game Two. He finished the game 4-8 with four RBI and three runs scored. Sam Kulasingam was 4-7, as the sophomore clubbed his first home run of 2022 in the 8th to start the Air Force rally. He also scored twice and drove in two runs.

Jake Greiving, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the 4th, stayed on in right field and wound up 4-6 with his first-career home run in the 6th. Greiving managed three RBI, as he also drove in two runs with a single in the 4th.

Gabriel Garcia had three hits, as his RBI single in the 8th drove in the 10th and tying run of the inning. Jay Thomason was 2-4 with a double and three RBI, walking twice. Paul Skenes was 2-4 with two singles after being pinch hit for by Matt Thompson in the 8th. Thompson had two hits in the Falcons 10-run 8th inning, including a three-run triple to narrow the Nevada lead to 18-17.

Rob Martin made his third start of the year, though he lasted just 1.1 innings. Command was an issue for the senior, as he allowed four runs on one hit, two walks, and two hit batters. Dylan Rogers was thrust into the game in the 2nd, and gave the Falcons solid innings outs of the bullpen. The freshman went 4.1 innings, surrendering four runs on three hits, three walks while striking out four. Doyle Gehring, who notched his third save of the season in Game One, entered in the 9th and pitched 4.2 innings in relief. He was credited with the loss after Nevada pushed across the eventual winning run in the 13th.

The Falcons initially trailed 6-0 going into their half of the 2nd, though Thomason got Air Force on the board with an RBI double. A three-run 4th for Air Force saw the Nevada lead shrink to 6-4, but the Wolfpack countered with four runs in the 6th, extending the lead to 10-4.

Solo homers by Altorfer and Greiving, as well as a RBI double from Blake Covin tallied three Falcon runs in their half of 6th, as Air Force continued to chip away at the Nevada advantage, which had been trimmed to 10-7. The Wolfpack answered right back with eight more runs between the 7th and 8th innings, as Air Force trailed 18-8 going into the bottom of the 8th.

Then, the chaos began.

Pinch-hitting for Covin, Jason Booker led off the inning with a single. Kulasingam followed Booker with a two-run shot over the left field fence, rewriting the score at 18-10. Following Kulasingam's home run, play was suspended due to darkness, with the game picking back up at 11 am MT this morning. Thompson, who entered the fray as a pinch-hitter for Skenes, promptly singled to kick-start what became an eight-hit, 10-run inning capped by Garcia's game-tying single.

Both teams traded clean innings until the 13th, where Nevada's Dario Gomez lined a RBI single into right-center, his sixth RBI of the game, to put Nevada back up 19-18. The Falcons began their half of the 13th how they would have hoped, as Booker was hit by a pitch and Kulasingam walked. However, Booker was picked off between second and third after Thompson was unsuccessful in his attempt to bunt. Booker, caught between bases on the play, was tagged out with Kulasingam taking second after the play.

Thompson eventually walked, as the Falcons again put the winning run at first. A Garcia fielder's choice put the tying run at third with two outs, though Altorfer popped up to second to end the game.

"We had the momentum, but we didn't get 'er done," said Kaz. "It would have been epic, and one for the ages had we been able to push across one more run...but that's baseball."

Following the rescheduling of Air Force's Tuesday afternoon matchup with Northern Colorado, the Falcons next series will begin on March 11, when the Birds travel to Minneapolis to play Minnesota for a three-game series. First-pitch on March 11 is scheduled for 5 pm MT.

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