The Muhlenberg baseball team scored 10 runs in its final at-bat to stun Moravian, 14-13, on April 23, 1988.
Following are excerpts from an article about the game on its 32nd anniversary.
One of the enduring charms of baseball is that it's played without a clock. No matter how big a lead you have late in the game, you can't take a knee, play the ball to the corner or run the shot clock down every possession to kill time. You don't win the game until you get that last out.
Sometimes, it never comes.
On April 23, 1988, Moravian led Muhlenberg 13-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh (and last) inning in the first game of a doubleheader. Remarkably, the Mules scored 10 runs – the last nine with two outs – to pull out a 14-13 win.
How improbable a win was it? According to baseball-reference.com, it's never happened in the Major Leagues. The largest deficit overcome for a walkoff win in the bottom of the ninth was seven runs (Boston vs. Washington in 1961 and California vs. Detroit in 1986).
The website gregstoll.com further tells us that between 1957 and 2019, the visiting team took a nine-run lead into the bottom of the ninth 1,345 times and won 1,345 times.
"It was the most exciting game I was ever a part of," said Dave Sonnenberg '91, now senior pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Mike White '91, batting in the leadoff position, belted a hanging breaking ball on the second pitch of the inning for a home run – one of seven he hit that season, still the school record for a freshman.
So the score went from 13-4 to 13-5. Big deal, right?
"I'll be honest with you," said White, who works as a business developing manager for PPG in Suwanee, Georgia. "This sounds really bad, but at the time it really seemed not really meaningful. You know what I mean? Because we were down by so much."
Four batters later, the Mules were down to their last out with the bases loaded, but a two-run single by designated hitter Eric Dieter '88 kept the inning alive. Two batters later, light-hitting first baseman Rob Stern, hitting in the ninth spot, cleared the bases with a triple on a 3-2 pitch, and suddenly it was 13-10.
By then, the wheels had officially started falling off for Moravian. White drew a four-pitch walk in his second at-bat of the inning. Another walk and a wild pitch brought home Stern and set the stage for the most bizarre play of the inning.
With runners on second and third, Stuart Abramson hit a hard ground ball to the third baseman.
"He picked it cleanly, stepped on third, and jumped up and down because that would have been the third out. Only it wasn't a force play," recalled Michael Hoffman '91, a urological surgeon in Winchester, Virginia. "I remember the pitcher looking at the third baseman like, 'Oh my god dude. You have got to be kidding me.' If he had thrown it to first, the game would have been over."
"I think that was the point where I was kind of thinking 'We might win this thing,'" said Sonnenberg.
White scored on the misplay to cut the gap to one, and yet another run-scoring wild pitch from one of four pitchers Moravian tried that inning tied the score.
Still looking for that final out, the Greyhounds elected to intentionally walk senior third baseman Ray Handel '88, who had singled earlier in the inning, and try their luck with the freshman Hoffman, who had popped out with the bases loaded. He hit the second pitch up the middle for the game-winning knock.
"I remember looking back and seeing Stu running from third to home. That was a great sight. And then him getting mobbed at home plate and everyone running at me."
Sonnenberg drove in seven runs in the first three innings as Muhlenberg completed the sweep with a 13-5 win in the second game. "You kind of knew they didn't have a prayer in the second game," he said. "They were so deflated after that whole experience."
Hoffman, an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner and Academic All-American in football, went 3-0 against Moravian as a freshman, winning 14-12 in football. But it was the football-like 14-13 baseball final that lives on.
"It was awesome to have a part in such an amazing comeback against our rival, Moravian," he said. "The fact that this game is still talked about so many years later is truly special."
