Wilson Hits Walk-Off Homer in 13th

In the picture above those are some very tasty pulled pork sliders next to the ham and bean soup—a little heavy on the beans—and a nice glass of German Riesling too. After this excellent lunch at The Soup Place on Broadway—this is a place worth going to more than once—I noticed some commotion on the Yellowstone County Courthouse lawn: sure enough the Tea Party was setting up shop, though they looked fairly thin on the ground when I checked them out about 1 pm.

Hey, check out the allusion to Ayn Rand in the website on the sign on the right. I thought Tea Party members were supposed to be knuckle-dragging illiterates.

Eventually I got to Dehler Park where I noticed a few people in the stands; maybe they should have held the Tea Party rally at the ballpark, might have aided both causes. I think the city fathers should have a flag flying on 27th near the park to let people driving by know that a game is on, to warn them about foul balls, and maybe entice a few to wander in and watch the game.

I had read the Kusek article in the Gazette on Saturday morning, so I knew that the Boys of Spring from Montana State University at Billings were playing a double-header with the Boys of Spring from Northwest Nazarene, of Nampa, Idaho. Check out their website: it looks like they have more high school students from the area getting college credit than they have undergraduates: this sounds like a good idea.

According to Kusek MSUB lost the double-header on Friday because NNU played with "small balls" and MSUB didn't defend all that well against them. He also mentioned a 3 run homer which doesn't sound very small to me.

Apparently the last Nazarene pitcher, though he struck out the side in the 12th, hadn't seen this sign posted all over the ballpark. I couldn't find a scorecard so I don't know the names of the various players, except the guy from MSUB who hit the walk-off home run down the left field line in the bottom of the 13th inning: that was Travis Wilson, his first home run this season.

MSUB's starting pitcher was an average-sized right-hander who was surprisingly strong for about 7 innings, though he had some slick infield defense behind him too. He ran into some trouble in the 8th inning when NNU tied the score with 2 runs from a couple of hits that might have been caught by the shortstop and first baseman but weren't. Another run in the top of the ninth for NNU off a little left-hander had the home folks a little worried but a couple of timely hits and some good running in the bottom of the 9th tied the score at 3-3. Whoever that little left-hander was he did really well in the 10th, and the 11th, and then the 12th, and finally the 13th. He mixed speeds and locations very effectively.

The game started at 1 pm and with 2 outs and nobody on, about 4:30 in the afternoon, Travis Wilson of MSUB hit a line drive just over the left field fence and just fair too. Didn't go much further than the 329 ft that the sign says, I think, but that was enough to win the game That is the guy just pulling into home plate with a crowd of well-wishers waiting. I think I heard a few bad words from the NNU crowd about this time.

And there is his picture on the scoreboard. MSUB has players from Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana and probably a few other places too. The 3 umps were pretty good, something I always notice at games in Billings. They don't have "homers" like they have in every other town around that I've seen games.

The second game started around 5 pm, but I had had enough baseball fun for one day. So, just read about it in the Gazette tomorrow morning, after you go to church of course.