The Region's Team Of Northwest Indiana

Whiting, Ind. – June 30, 2013 – The Northwest Indiana Oilmen and DuPage County Hounds engaged in a five hour, five minutes affair that took 15 innings to complete on Sunday evening at Oil City Stadium.  The Hounds scratched out a run in the top of the 15^th to emerge victorious by the score of 13-12.

It looked as if the Hounds would secure the victory in 13 innings when they broke an 11-11 deadlock in the top of 13^th, but Nick Bartolone led off the bottom of the frame with the team’s first home run of the season, a solo blast to left field.  Bartolone finished the game with five hits and seven runs batted in to boost himself into the league lead in the RBI department with 18 in just eight games.  He also set a new franchise record for most RBIs in a single game.

“He’s a good player,” Oilmen manager Justin Huisman said.  “The fact that he’s leading the league in RBIs and he came late because of a wrist injury, that just tells you right there [how good he is].  He’s one of those guys that doesn’t have the prettiest swing in the world, but he hits the ball hard.”

The Hounds trailed by five runs entering the seventh inning but scored four runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to send the game to extras. 

“I don’t know what it was today,” Huisman said.  “We’ve had so much time off in the past week.  You want to chalk it up to rustiness.  I think both teams had a lot of chances, we may have had a few more chances, but we just didn’t come through at the end of the game.”

Northwest Indiana stranded runners at second and third in the 11^th and the 13^th, before leaving another man in scoring position in the 14^th.  Michael Steensen, Andy Wellwerts, Joe Cochran, Matt Poberekyo and Aveeno Nasiloski all saw time on the mound in the contest. 

Anthony Bova reached base five times, finishing the night 2-for-5 with three bases on balls and two singles.  Every spot in the lineup came to the plate eight different times in the game. 

The 15-inning game marks the longest in franchise history, shattering the previous record of 12-innings established in a 6-5 loss to the Illinois Lincolns on June 30, 2012, exactly a year prior.  The five hours and five minutes of baseball was also the longest in Oilmen history.  Northwest Indiana, DuPage and Lexington are now tied atop the Midwest Collegiate League.  All three teams have 10-5 marks after Lexington took two of three from Chicago in a triple-header at Wabaunsee Community College on Saturday.

On Monday night, the Red, White and Blue Tour makes its way to Oil City Stadium.  The Oilmen face off with the U.S. Military All-Stars at 7:10 in a special exhibition game.  Tickets are available on nwoilmen.com. Bishop Noll graduate Danny Pobereyko is scheduled to start on the mound for the Oilmen.