The zeroes on the scoreboard Friday night glowed in the night sky, illuminating the outfield at Nittany Lion Field.
With every pitch, Northwestern’s Lauren Delaney and Penn State’s Ashley Esparza dueled into the Happy Valley night, registering out after out, waiting for the other one to blink.
Each pitch moved even more than the one before, as a number of Wildcats and Nittany Lions fell victim to the dueling aces. Pitch after pitch blew by waiting bats, and as the innings accumulated, so did the strikeouts.
At one point, Delaney had retired 21 consecutive Penn State batters. It would have been a perfect game had it come in a regulation seven-inning game. But on Friday, it was just a way to return serve to Esparza.
When it was all over, 14 innings and 2 hours, 51 minutes later, it was Esparza that had finally blinked and Northwestern came out victorious by the slimmest of margins, with the only run coming on a double by Wildcat first baseman Michelle Batts.
But despite the heartbreaking loss, no Lion that walked off the field Friday felt like a loser, especially Esparza.
“It was one of the best games us as a group has played this year,” Esparza said. “We had a lot of fun and it was a great effort by everyone.”
The game only went as long as it did because of the performances of Esparza and Delaney, which combined to be the main players in an epic and historic duel.
Both Esparza and Delaney pitched complete games, throwing a mind-blowing 376 pitches and combining for 34 strikeouts — 18 for Delaney, 16 for Esparza.
But the final stats on the boxscore don’t begin to tell the story of Friday night. Stats like 21, the number of Lions Delaney set down in succession from the sixth to the 12th inning. Or 14 and 16, the numbers that put Esparza’s name at the top of two Penn State records.
Esparza broke the records for both innings pitched and strikeouts in a single game, passing the 12 innings Tanis Ambelang pitched on April 3, 1999 versus Iowa and the 15 strikeouts Missy Beseres recorded on April 24, 2005 against Northwestern.
“Ashley, when she is on, she’s on and she can battle with anybody and everybody,” Penn State assistant coach Jen McIntyre said. “She was obviously on tonight — she threw hard, she was mixing it, she was hitting her spots well and it was an all-around great performance. That’s the level of expectation she has for herself.”
Fourteen innings was also good enough for another Penn State record, as in the second-longest game in Penn State history, tied with a loss at Iowa in 2004 and behind a 17-inning loss at Wisconsin in 1997.
Delaney didn’t set any records on Friday, No. 12 Northwestern’s longest game since an 18-inning finish in 2006. Her 18 strikeouts are still 10 behind the Wildcats’ — and also the NCAA — record of 28 set in that same game two years ago.
Delaney was almost a loser the inning prior, when Jackie Hill was robbed of a game-winning hit by Wildcat shortstop Tammy Williams. It was only fitting that Williams would score the winning run moments later, giving Delaney her 26th win of the season.
“It’s gonna come down to a simple hit,” Esparza said. “It could’ve went either way — Jackie hits it a couple inches higher, it goes over her head and we win.”
