Behind the numbers of the longest Arkansas high school baseball state championship game ever played

CONWAY, ARKANSAS - It was a game for the ages, and for the record books, in an Arkansas high school baseball championship contest.

Harding Academy and Brookland needed literally two complete games to determine the winner of the Arkansas Activities Association’s Class 4A state championship game Friday at the University of Central Arkansas. That’s because it took 14 innings to complete, setting a new state record.

Nearly five and a half hours after the first pitch - and more than 500 pitches later - Harding Academy’s Wildcats finally outlasted Brookland’s Bearcats, 14-11, to claim the eighth state title in program history.

Harding Academy outlasts Brookland in state title record 14 innings

But the Bearcats displayed tremendous resiliency themselves despite the loss. They rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the top of the third, and also battled back to tie Harding Academy in both the 10th and 12th innings.

Brookland had a chance to prolong the game even more in the bottom of the 14th, when the Bearcats loaded the bases with two outs, bringing the potential winning run to the plate. However, Wildcat relief pitcher Rhett Watson - who entered the mound in that exact situation - struck out the only batter he faced to finally end the marathon session.

Here is a closer look at the numbers from that historic game in Arkansas on Friday:

• The game started a few minutes after 4 p.m. Central time and ended in total darkness. It lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes.
• It was the longest game in Arkansas state championship game history, eclipsing the previous record of 13 innings that was set in 1992 in a game between Junction City and Clinton.
• There were a total of 512 pitches thrown in the game - 273 by Brookland and 239 from Harding Academy.
• Only three pitches were thrown by the last pitcher, Harding Academy’s Rhett Watson, when he got his strikeout to record the save.
• Both team’s starting pitchers - Harding Academy’s Nate Corbitt and Brookland’s Asher Griffin - combined to go 2 2/3 innings.
• One of the Wildcats’ relief pitchers, Cam Pryor, went a full seven innings and one of the Bearcat relievers, Cooper Stallings, nearly matched that, going 6 1/3 innings.
• Brookland’s pitchers combined to issue 15 walks and hit seven batters. Harding Academy allowed the exact same number of earned runs, walks, strikeouts and flyouts with 9. The Wildcats’ offense also recorded 9 hits.
• Both Harding Academy and Brookland threw three wild pitches. There were no passed balls or balks.
• Harding Academy left 17 runners on base, while Brookland stranded 15.
• Brookland, after trailing 5-0 entering the bottom of the third, broke through with seven runs to take the lead before Harding Academy scored two in the top of the fourth to tie it at 7-all. That remained the score until the top of the 10th.
• A player on both teams - Harding Academy’s Pryor and Brookland’s Gabe Carter - each had eight at-bats, though neither player got a base hit. Two other Wildcats - Titus Henley and Kam Hoover - each had seven at-bats and both got one hit and scored one run, while the Bearcats’ Ripken Tucker had seven at-bats, getting two hits.
• Speaking of Ripken Tucker, that conjures up memories of his namesake, legendary MLB shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken, of course, is known as baseball’s “Iron Man,” playing in an MLB-record 2,632 consecutive games played. He also was part of the longest game in professional baseball history while in the minors, a 33-inning affair in 1981 between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox in the Triple-A International League.
• Watson was named the game’s MVP. He had seven plate appearances, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and four runs scored as well as drawing four walks.
• Harding Academy’s Joe Myles had only one hit in five at-bats, but was able to drive in four runs, two of those on a triple in the top of the 14th that gave the Wildcats insurance with a three-run advantage.
• Another Wildcat, Brody Myers, didn’t have a hit in four at-bats but still scored three runs.
• Corbitt was the only other Wildcat to have a multi-hit game along with Watson. He also drove in four runs.
• No home runs were hit in the game, and the only two players to hit triples - Myles and Corbitt - were the only players from either side to drive in four runs.
• The last four batters in Harding Academy’s lineup (Watson, Corbitt, Riley Smith and Myles) accounted for all of the Wildcats’ RBIs, as the quartet combined to drive in 12 runs. They also accounted for six of the Wildcats’ nine base hits.
• Brookland had 14 hits, and six Bearcats each had two-hit games (Cooper Bode, Ripken Tucker, Jake Reece, Eli Foster, Jordan Friend and Ethan Bales).
• Reece had two hits and drove in three runs. Friend had two hits and scored twice, while Bales had two hits and came around to score three times.
• The top four batters in Brookland’s lineup (Bode, Tucker, Rogan Tyler and Jake Reece) combined for seven of the Bearcats’ 11 RBIs and half of the team’s 14 hits.
• Of the nine pitchers that appeared in the game, only two didn’t allow any runs - both from Harding Academy: Watson in his save situation, and freshman Cam Norris, who went 2 2/3 innings and didn’t allow a hit as he ended up being the winning pitcher.
• Harding Academy has now won eight state titles and the Wildcats have never lost a state championship game, going a perfect 8-for-8. Four of those titles were won this decade.
• With the win, Harding Academy finished the season 25-6 - the Wildcats’ victory total matching the total number of runs scored in their latest championship triumph.
• While the Harding Academy-Brookland game was going on, Harding Academy’s softball team played on Friday night, falling to Mayflower in the Class 3A title game, 9-1. The game started at 7 p.m., right when the baseball game was going on, and ended exactly an hour and a half later, with the baseball game still needing at least an hour to finish up. Mayflower’s softball team finished with the same record as Harding Academy’s baseball squad - 25-6.