Summit League Baseball Reached an Epic Peak Over the Weekend

“I thought our story was epic, you know. You and me. Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined and blood shed. Epic.”

Over the last decade or two, internet meme-speak has watered down the word epic to a synonym of awesome, but with an exaggerated grandeur not quite captured by merely saying, “That’s awesome!” Because awesome itself has been watered down over the years, and no longer really implies something awe-inspiring, but instead something more akin to “cool.” And now, due to the fleeting nature of internet trends, the word epic is now outdated meme-speak at that, only used by cringe olds, too self-obsessed to notice that no one talks like that anymore.

But near the end of the second season of Veronica Mars, when Logan Echolls (quoted above) bemoans the way his relationship with Veronica has seemingly fizzled out, he’s using the more traditional, literary definition of epic (a little less Homer Simpson and a little more Homer’s The Iliad). Epic poems are rhythmic, lyrical narratives, known for their vast length and fantastical foes. Veronica immediately pushes back against Logan’s romanticized notion of epic love. Epic should not be an aspirational modifier for one’s love story. In general, epic narratives are pretty unpleasant for everyone with direct involvement, but they make for great television. And baseball games.

Late Saturday afternoon, the University of Northern Colorado Bears earned a walk-off win against the University of St. Thomas Tommies in a 21-inning epic at Koch Diamond in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was the longest game in Summit League history and the eighth-longest game by innings in Division I history.

But the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed a strange detail in the game’s description, aside from the general oddity of its going 21 innings. To understand how the Bears were able to win in a walk-off on the Tommies’ home field, we have to go all the way back to March, when the first bad omen befell the season series between these two teams.

St. Thomas was scheduled to travel to Greeley, Colorado to play a three-game weekend series against the Bears starting on Friday, March 13. But that Friday’s game was banged due to poor air quality caused by wildfires in nearby Nebraska. An act of God on Friday the 13th? Ominous.

Since the game was part of conference play between the two Summit League teams, they agreed to make it up as part of a four-game set this past weekend in Minnesota. Thus, in Game 1 of a doubleheader scheduled for Friday, the Bears would play as the home team while on the road. Still confused about how Northern Colorado won as the home team in a game that ended on Saturday? Totally reasonable. Because unless you’re a resident of the Midwest or Mike Trout levels of enthusiastic about the weather, you may not know that on Friday afternoon, Minnesota was dealing with thunder, hail, and the small matter of a tornado touching down in Rochester (about an hour’s drive southeast of St. Paul). Originally scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. local time, the game didn’t get going until 4:00 p.m., at which point the call had already been made to play just one game on Friday and a doubleheader Saturday, with the series finale on Sunday. But as the adage goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Once it actually began, the game itself was … a mess. Nothing compared to the damage caused by the tornado, but this was not a cleanly played game. Center fielder Tanner Recchio got the offense rolling for the Tommies by perfectly embodying his character’s archetype. The team’s leader in walks and stolen bases, he worked a free pass against Northern Colorado starter Brayden Olson, then swiped second. Next, right fielder Owen Bond, who owns the best batting average on the Tommies (.337 at the start of play on Friday), dropped a single into left field to put runners on the corners. A safety squeeze from second baseman Matthew Maulik scored Recchio and allowed Bond to advance to second.

The inning wore on as Bond went to third on a passed ball by Bears catcher Zeke Minic, St. Thomas first baseman Joe Roder reached on a fielding error by Northern Colorado third baseman Brandon Sanchez, and Bond plated a second run for the Tommies. Roder moved up a base on Minic’s second passed ball of the inning, but Olson got out of the inning before Roder could advance further.

But it’s not a battle without both sides landing blows, so after St. Thomas starter Reece Wagner got Bears second baseman Brett Barber to ground out, left fielder Jaden Stone got on with a single to left-center. Entering the series, Stone was fresh off being named Kwik Star Peak Performer of the Week after slashing .615/.667/.846 over Northern Colorado’s previous four games. He advanced to second when shortstop Logan Pruski reached on a throwing error by Roder. Wagner then got center fielder Mason Griffin to fly out, and just when he thought he’d escaped the inning unscathed, Bears first baseman Jake Bullard popped up a 3-2 pitch to shallow right. Maulik ranged back to make the catch, but the ball ricocheted off his glove; he stumbled for several steps before recovering. With both Stone and Pruski running on the pitch, Stone scored from second, but once Maulik regained his balance, he was able to fire home and get the third out on Pruski attempting to score from first.

After one inning, the Tommies led 2-1 both in terms of runs scored and errors committed, with the Bears holding a 2-0 lead in passed balls. The two teams continued to grapple in this fashion with neither landing a knockout punch. Instead, they raced to administer death by a thousand cuts.

The Bears tied the game at two in the bottom of the third on an RBI double from Stone. The Tommies retook the lead, scoring two in the top of the fourth on a two-run triple from Bond. Northern Colorado answered in the bottom of the frame when Sanchez reached on a groundball misplayed by Maulik for his second error of the game. Sanchez advanced to second on a groundout and third on a passed ball by St. Thomas catcher Terek Verhage. Bears DH Easton Bryant then singled Sanchez home to pull back within one.

With two errors on his stat line through four innings, Maulik came out of the game. The broadcast commentators alluded to a potential back injury on a diving play in the second after seeing Maulik stretching in the dugout between innings. Maulik, the Tommies’ three-hole hitter, has the second-best batting average in the starting lineup, and he’s tied for the team lead in home runs with four. Perhaps if the Tommies had been able to keep Maulik’s bat in the lineup, this game may have reached a conclusion without needing quite so many innings.

Down 4-3, the Bears evened things up in the bottom of the fifth. Barber walked, Stone was hit by a pitch, and Pruski doubled in Barber from second. The score held until the bottom of the seventh, when Stone walked to chase Wagner from the game. With Zak Endres now pitching for the Tommies, Pruski logged his second RBI double in as many plate appearances. This is where I tell you that Pruski leads the Bears in slugging percentage. Shocking, right?

The Tommies failed to answer in the eighth, so they entered the ninth needing a run to tie. Bond led off with a walk and stole second, mirroring the way Recchio started the scoring for St. Thomas back in the first. After Chris Knowles (in the game for Maulik) popped out, Bond took third on Minic’s third passed ball of the game. With one out and a runner now on third, Roder’s fly ball to right field was enough to tie the game; a scoreless bottom of the ninth from Endres sent it to extras.

After an uneventful 10th, the game was suspended due to darkness as Koch Diamond does not have lights. The overnight pause in play provided both head coaches a unique opportunity to reset their strategy. Heading into the 11th inning on Saturday, both teams opted to throw a bulk reliever with some spot starting experience as they embarked on a journey of unknowable length, with at least one more game to play following the current one’s conclusion. (Sometime between first pitch on Friday and the game’s suspension, both team’s social media accounts stopped mentioning the fourth game initially planned for the weekend series, and now both team’s schedules list it as canceled.)

Resuming play at 1:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, Trevor Landen toed the rubber for the Bears in the top of the 11th. In the bottom half of the inning, Sam Stockman took the mound for the Tommies. Every epic needs at least one hero, and the performances turned in by Landen and Stockman put each of them solidly in the running. The pair went toe-to-toe producing twin stat lines of 8 2/3 innings pitched with just two earned runs allowed. That was more than either skipper could have expected, given that Landen had thus far in the season posted an 8.15 ERA over 38 2/3 innings and Stockman’s ERA sat at 6.86 over 21 innings. Not to mention that neither coach probably predicted the game would last an additional 11 innings when Landen and Stockman entered the game.

Stockman also has this play to his name in the bottom of the 18th.

Got em pic.twitter.com/YNb4NUobII

— St. Thomas Baseball (@TommieBase) April 18, 2026

Neither team scored on Saturday until the 19th. In the top half of the frame, Tommies catalyst Recchio worked a one-out walk, then again stole second. At some point overnight, the Bears remembered they didn’t actually have to pitch to the Tommies’ two-hole hitter and took to giving Bond the Bonds treatment by intentionally walking him every time he stepped in the batter’s box. Bond’s third intentional walk of the day put runners on first and second. With Evan Raabe pinch-hitting for Knowles in Maulik’s spot in the order, Recchio stole third to put runners on the corners. Raabe struck out, but Roder plated Recchio and Bond on a double to left-center. With Landen at 137 pitches, Logan Borboa came in and struck out catcher Sean Marlow to end the inning.

It’s worth noting that Marlow was the Tommies’ third catcher of the game. Verhage, the starting catcher, was pinch-hit for in the eighth inning, when this probably still felt like a normal game to St. Thomas head coach Chris Olean. Third baseman Max Berrisford replaced Verhage behind the dish. Then, in the next half inning, after Berrisford reached on a single, Marlow entered as a pinch-runner and promptly stole second.

Anyway, back to the 19th. Now trailing by two, the Bears answered immediately in the bottom of the inning. Stone led off with a single, and he was replaced at first by Pruski, who grounded into a fielder’s choice. With one out, Pruski scored from first on a double from Bullard, who advanced to third on a passed ball from Marlow. Sanchez singled to score Bullard and end Stockman’s outing. With Nolan Kemp now pitching for St. Thomas, Minic hit a fly ball to right field that landed in Bond’s glove to end the inning.

The seven-all tie held through the 20th. Then, in the top of the 21st, Recchio led off with a single instead of a walk, but still stole second not long after reaching first. Since the intentional walk bit them in the 19th, the Bears resumed pitching to Bond in the 21st and got him to fly out to left. Recchio was now thoroughly in the collective head of Northern Colorado’s pitching staff, given that he’d been wreaking havoc on the basepaths for some indeterminate duration now that this game exists only in some wrinkled fold of the space-time continuum. As a result, Recchio took third when Borboa airmailed a pickoff attempt into center field. Borboa recovered to strike out Raabe, but strike three caromed off Minic up the first base line. He got a hand on it quickly, causing Recchio to hold at third, but then bobbled the ball, briefly losing it between his legs and preventing a throw to first to get the hustling Raabe, who reached on the dropped third strike. The Tommies let both Borboa and Minic off the hook, though. Roder grounded into a double play, ending the scoring threat and sending the game to the bottom of the 21st.

Still on the mound, Kemp issued a pair of one-out walks to center fielder Ethan Mooser, who entered the game for defense in the top of the 20th, and Bullard to put runners on first and second. Sanchez then struck out to bring up Minic with two outs. Mooser and Bullard successfully executed a double steal before Minic also walked. As Minic jogged to first, a field mic picked up a spectator yelling, “21 innings of this! Brutal!”

The bases were loaded for Brien Kenny, who was 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch and a walk in five plate appearances since entering the game in the 11th as a pinch-hitter for Ethan Sanchez. Before Kenny dug in, Bears head coach Mike Anderson called timeout and huddled up near third base with Kenny and the baserunners to talk strategy.

When play resumed, the first pitch from Kemp was a ball that the 5-foot-8 Marlow had to stretch to reel in. The second pitch missed outside. Feeling the pressure, Kemp went to his 3-0 fastball a pitch early and secured a called strike. Kenny fouled back the next pitch to even the count.

Just one strike stood between this game and the 22nd inning. Kemp came set and paused for a beat, but he was interrupted before he could pick up his leg to begin his delivery. First base umpire Kirk Rall called a balk. Mooser scored from third for a Bears balk-off win.

The NCAA balk rule is an incredible juxtaposition of precision and opacity. It starts with a list of detailed and specific pitcher movements that definitely qualify as a balk. That list is followed by an open-ended clause stating that any motion that isn’t part of the pitcher’s typical delivery can be interpreted as an attempt to deceive the runner, and thus, called a balk. The phrasing of the rule leaves the door open pretty wide for umpires to enforce the rule as they see fit.

Fortunately, there is video of the alleged balk, so we can all judge for ourselves whether Rall took Fate into his own hands or merely conformed to Fate’s twisted sense of humor.

The balk that ended the 21 inning game.

— Sickos Committee (@sickoscommittee.org) 2026-04-18T23:08:54.377Z

After watching the balk clip several times, comparing it to Kemp’s motion earlier in the plate appearance, combing through a few of his highlights on Instagram, then re-watching the balk clip several more times, I’m still unsure. The rock-step is part of Kemp’s typical motion, even with runners on, and the commentators on the broadcast say that Rall seemed to imply the call stemmed from something Kemp did with his front shoulder, which isn’t visible in the camera angle circulating on social media. The broadcast did offer one additional angle, this time from the front, and if you really lock in, a small shoulder shrug on Kemp’s glove arm is almost discernible. But none of his other pitches are shown from this angle, so this too, could be part of his typical motion. Kemp certainly looked baffled by the call.

All of that said, the best epics rarely deliver clear-cut lessons, with uncomplicated characters easily classified as good and evil. Those kinds of absolutes belong in fairytales for children, whereas this game wandered at least three circles deep in Dante’s depiction of Hell.

And the narrative didn’t end when the game did either. Game 2 of the series started 40 minutes later. Here’s a series of factual statements about the second game of the series that depict the many ways in which the wreckage from Game 1 carried into the rest of the weekend. After catching all 21 innings of Game 1, Minic caught the first five innings of Game 2. After logging four passed balls in Game 1, he let two runs score on passed balls in Game 2. St. Thomas got seven innings from its starting pitcher, meaning it only needed one reliever in the second game. Conversely, Northern Colorado’s starter faced four batters, allowed three runs, and was removed from the second game without recording an out, causing the Bears to use four pitchers. They hit four Tommie batters in the process. Maulik remained on the bench for St. Thomas. In the top of the ninth, with the Tommies on the cusp of closing out an 11-3 victory, play was suspended due to darkness.

Game 2 resumed at 11:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, and St. Thomas secured the win without further drama. Game 3 commenced shortly thereafter, and because these teams proved themselves incapable of playing a normal, regulation game this weekend, this one needed 10 innings to reach a decisive conclusion.

Between the two teams, the final game of the series required innings from 11 pitchers, including five who threw in Game 1. Four of the “fresh” pitchers (including Lucas Stone, Jaden’s younger brother) combined to hit five batters. Bears catcher Mac Dawsey was one of the batters beaned. He stayed in the game and caught another 2 1/3 innings, but Minic took over during a pitching change in sixth, bringing his total innings caught on the weekend to 30 2/3. Maulik pinch-ran for DH Lucas McNellis in the seventh. It was his first appearance for the Tommies since the fourth inning of Game 1, but he was replaced in the lineup before getting a chance to hit. The Bears are off until Friday, but the Tommies play again on Tuesday in Milwaukee.

Smaller college baseball programs like Northern Colorado and St. Thomas are always ripe with the elements of good storytelling, but rarely does the genre veer into the same territory as Beowulf and La Cleopatra. As an example of the usual fare, the Tommies are back-to-back Summit League champions. They first joined the conference in 2021, making the leap directly from Division III. Normally, that isn’t allowed, but St. Thomas received a waiver because it was kicked out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for being so good that other schools were threatening to take their ball and go home.

You also get stories like the Vavra family. Tanner Vavra is the assistant coach at St. Thomas. Tanner and his two younger brothers, Terrin Vavra and Trey Vavra, all played pro ball, and most recently, Terrin suited up for Team Czechia in the WBC and hit a three-run home run against Korea. Their father, Joe Vavra, is also on the St. Thomas coaching staff as a volunteer director of program development, a position he’s more than qualified for after coaching in the majors with the Tigers and Twins.

Northern Colorado has its own family connections within the coaching ranks. Brothers Shane Opitz and Casey Opitz serve as the program’s assistant coach and director of catching performance, respectively. The Colorado natives, like the Vavras, are a baseball family. Shane played nine minor league seasons as an 11th-round pick of the Blue Jays in 2010. Casey was an eighth-round pick by the Cubs in 2021, and though he began the 2026 season on the Development List, he was activated to the club’s Triple-A affiliate three days before the start of the series in St. Paul. The Cubs also drafted the oldest Opitz brother (Jake) back in 2008.

Then there are the smaller details that add subtle notes of richness to a story. Details that say something without actually saying the thing. Like how Northern Colorado is rostering four Ethans, three Jakes, three Logans, two Masons, and two Macs, while St. Thomas rosters three Nolans, three Maxes, two Owens, two Evans, and each team has an Easton. All those repeating names imply either a lack of diversity or a mystical nominative determinism among college baseball players.

Again, there are always plenty of strange and wonderful narratives kicking around college baseball. But this past weekend, the Summit League delivered an epic battle and a cautionary tale. Even if many of the specific motives and conclusions from the series remain very much open to interpretation, it’s clear that persisting in playing baseball despite the rather insistent warnings of both a wildfire and a tornado is a bad idea.