Joseph Kuchler tosses an incredible 13 innings to keep the Pack alive for Charlie Seiter's walk-off single
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - In an elimination game at the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Baseball Championships, the Loyola University New Orleans baseball team defeated the five-seed Bethel 3-2 in a 13-inning game Thursday afternoon at Paterson Field.
While both teams were kept off the board in the first inning, Bethel (22-24), playing today's game as the away team, scored one in the top of the second. The Wolf Pack (25-30) responded in the bottom of the inning, beginning with a leadoff single from Jase Biehl. After the next batter, Brandon Wilson Jr., singled out to left-center field, Biehl was able to come around and score on an error by the left fielder to make it 2-1.
Both pitchers were dialed in for the next five innings, before the Wildcats were able to draw the game even at two in the top of the eighth inning.
After eight strong innings from starting pitcher Joseph Kuchler, the senior helped send the game to extras and keep Bethel off the boards with a one-two-three ninth inning, setting a career-high for innings pitched in a game that would not live long.
In the 10th inning, head coach Doug Faust let Kuchler continue to work as he tossed yet another clean inning. The Metairie, La. native continued to dominate into the 12th, striking out two before the Pack allowed the winning Bethel runner on via an error in the 13th. After the next batter attempted to bunt the winning run over to second, Spencer Rosenbohm came up and made a stellar play to throw the lead runner out.
While Kuchler walked the next batter to put base runners on first and second, Gabriel Trastoy jumped up and caught Bethel attempting to take third base for his second throw-out of the day and 19th on the season. Now with two outs, Kuchler was able to get the fifth batter of the inning to pop out, ending the 13th inning with 145 pitches on the day against 49 total batters faced.
Leading off the bottom of the 13th inning, Wilson stepped into the batters box for his fifth at-bat of the game and connected on the second pitch he saw for a double down the left field line. The next batter, Trastoy, moved Wilson up to third on a well-place sacrifice bunt, before Charlie Seiter stepped to the plate two batters later and sent a single looping over the shortstop into left field for the walk-off single.
Now 1-1 in the double-elimination tournament, the Wolf Pack remain alive and will take on the loser of Thursday night's Faulkner-William Carey game tomorrow, May 4th at 1 p.m.
Wolf Pack Head Coach Doug Faust
"Like I told the guys after the game, it's great how far we've come to be able to perform in high situations like that compared to the beginning of the year. It was a tough game, and we finally got the one that matters the most."
"On Joseph, you can't say anymore about him, this performance pretty much sums up his career at Loyola. He just battles and battles and keeps making good pitch after good pitch. He was a little sick but there were no complaints from him, he just goes out and pitches."
"I know his innings pitched looks crazy, but his pitch count wasn't out of control. We talked before the game, knowing it could be his last performance he said he wanted to handle it."
"I'm just really happy we got a couple of big hits in the last inning and were able to win for us and for Joseph."
Pack Facts
Starter Joseph Kuchler threw a career-high 13 innings today for his fourth complete game on the season, striking out seven en-route to his seventh win this year.
Kuchler's 89.2 innings pitched on the season rank as the seventh-most in a single year in program history.
As it stands today, his current season ERA of 2.41 would rank as the fourth-best in a season for the Wolf Pack (minimum 30 IP).
Loyola's 6-7-8 hitters in today's lineup of Elam, Biehl and Wilson, combined for seven of the team's 12 hits and scored all three runs.
Charlie Seiter recorded his fourth three-hit ballgame of the year and is now batting a team-best .342 this season.
Jase Biehl tallied a season-best three hits in today's game.
You can keep up with the Pack this season by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.
