#9 Moment of 2012-13: Baseball Closes Season With Walk-Off Classic

By Leopard Nation · Published June 10, 2013 · Updated July 7, 2018

#9 Baseball Closes Season With Walk-Off Classic

On May 16, 2013 the Louisville Leopards Baseball team engaged in a classic extra inning back-and-forth affair with the Marlington Dukes to close the season. Louisville had just come off a frustrating 3-1 Sectional Final loss at Triway 2 days prior and the Dukes had ended the Leopards NBC dreams just 5 days before.

But on Senior Day 2013 Louisville would get revenge on their rivals from Marlington. The Leopards set the tone early by scoring four runs in the opening inning, but the Dukes duplicated the feat to tie the game in the top of the second. Louisville produced two runs in the bottom of the frame, but Marlington would go on to score 5 in the top of the fifth to take a 9-6 advantage.

The Leopards would chip away at the lead and get a key run via Kyle White in the sixth. White singled and Pavin Parks walked him to second. White then stole third and scored via an overthrow to make the score 9-8. White would finished 4-for-4 and score 5 runs in the contest. Louisville tied the game when Joe Crank scored on a beautiful sac bunt by Stephen Kerzan in the bottom of the seventh.

The Dukes became the first of the two squads to break double digits in the top of the eighth, but a trick play by Louisville in the bottom half of the inning prolonged the outcome. The Leopards had the ducks on the pond with nobody out, but two straight pop-outs dimmed their hopes. Then after the batter fell behind 0-2, the coaching staff called Parks to come off second and stop halfway to third. Noticing his large lead, the Marlington pitcher began moving towards Parks and a rundown followed. Meanwhile White took off for home and scored the game-tying run before Parks was tagged for the third out. “Let’s Play!” Third Base Coach Tom Siegfried said following the play to the Leopard baseball team.

Play they did all the way to the bottom of the tenth inning. Jeremy McQuilkin singled aboard via a bunt and took second on an overthrow. Parks advanced McQuilkin to third via a sacrifice bunt after that. Then Joey Duckworth delivered a game-winning single just past the outstretched arms of the right fielder to bring home McQuilkin’s winning run. The Leopards prevailed 11-10 and finished their 16th consecutive non-losing season with a 12-12 record overall and a 10-4 record in NBC play.

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