There are marathon ballgames, and then there's whatever happened here.
Let's paint a picture. Yesterday, the University of St. Thomas Tommies and the University of Northern Colorado Bears settled in for your standard Friday afternoon baseball game. First pitch took place, as scheduled, at 3 p.m. local time.
Sorry, did we say "standard"? That was inaccurate. The Bears won that game by a score of 8-7 -- 21 innings (and over 24 hours) later. Via a walk-off balk.
Why yes, that is a lot of information to be hit with all at once. Down 5-4 in the top of the ninth, the Tommies pushed a run across to force extras, effectively getting everyone into this mess. They played on until they reached the 11th inning, at which point the game was suspended due to daylight.
They picked up again at 1 p.m. CT Saturday, and not another run was scored until the top of the 19th, when the Tommies took a 7-5 lead ... and then immediately gave up two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
The winning run was finally scored, as mentioned, in the bottom of the 21st, on a balk that came with two outs and the bases loaded -- St. Thomas truly was that close to forcing a 22nd inning.
To further add to the bizarre circumstances, this Northern Colorado walk-off definitely took place in Minnesota. The resumed game was already a makeup of a game postponed earlier in the season due to wildfire smoke. So, the Bears, objectively the visiting team, walked off on the Tommies, via balk, on their own field.
In case you were wondering, they did have another game to play on Saturday once all the dust settled. It would appear that the scheduling of the entire weekend was actually in tatters well before this 21-inning game got underway due to the aforementioned wildfire-related postponement. To fit a fourth game into their three-day series, a doubleheader had first been scheduled for Friday afternoon; it was then moved to Saturday due to inclement weather. It would seem that the elusive doubleheader will now take place on Sunday, although at this point, we'd be amazed if anyone involved knows what day it is.