They say you have to crawl before you can walk. Sometimes you have to crawl before you can score.
Notre Dame's Jack Brannigan shocked everyone on the field in the Irish's game against Northwestern on Tuesday, stealing home in one of the most unconventional ways you'll ever see. Trying to catch the Wildcats pitcher off guard, Brannigan took off for home with two outs in the top of the third on a two-strike count. About halfway down the line, though, he began to stumble and chaos ensued.
In an effort to stop himself from falling flat on his face, Brannigan put his hands on the ground to brace himself. But with his momentum already taking him towards home plate, the Notre Dame speedster simply stayed in that crouch and bear crawled the rest of the way home.
It's hard to blame the opposing pitcher for making a rushed throw home up the line. It was as though he was watching the real-time transformation of an Animorphs cover. Needless to say, Brannigan slid in safely for his third career swipe of home, none more memorable than this one.
The announcer summed it up pretty neatly: "I don't know if I can put into words what just happened."
Well, we did our best.