As the Syracuse softball team trekked back onto the diamond to warm up for the top of the 11th inning against Georgetown Saturday, each player went about their normal routines, yet again.

Jenna Caira pitched as Pitbull’s ‘The Anthem’ blared through the speakers. The infielders pinballed the neon yellow softball around the horn countless times, and the outfielders huddled up for their signature pre-inning jump in center field.

While all of this was happening, the two single digits on the scoreboard vanished, as the game was tied at one. Suddenly, the ones turned to zeroes. The game was just too long, as SU extended a marathon game, the second-longest in program history, into territory rarely seen.

There wasn’t even room on the scoreboard for a complete line score anymore.

But in the twelfth inning The Orange finally conceded a run to the Hoyas (10-25 overall 4-10 Big East) and lost in 12 innings, 2-1. It was the first game of a doubleheader. SU won the second, 5-2, behind an 11-strikeout performance by pitcher Brittany Gardner.

‘Jenna did a good job of keeping us in the game,’ Syracuse head coach Leigh Ross said. ‘We just didn’t have any timely hitting.’

After throwing a no-hitter last weekend, Caira conceded a home run to Demetria Cipriano, the first batter of the game. The Orange (19-13, 8-4) answered with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning.

From that point on, neither team budged. Both squads failed to score during the next 11 innings until Georgetown’s Kristi Preuss scored on a single from Cara Savarese in the top of the 12th.

Soon after, the teams took the field for another six innings. By the end of the day, SU had played the equivalent of three games. The length of the doubleheader didn’t appear to cause any type of mental or physical exhaustion for the Orange. The players felt they could have played all afternoon.

‘The equivalent of three games was nothing, heck we could have played the equivalent of four games,’ freshman Lacey Kohl said, ‘as long as we are playing and we win we can play all day.’

Following the loss, the Orange came out roughly 30 minutes later for the second game of the doubleheader. Syracuse wasted no time setting the tone for the game, as the squad jumped out to an early lead on five runs scored in the first two innings.

Syracuse held on for a 5-2 win, with three runs driven in by third baseman Hallie Gibbs.

The success of the second game failed to lighten the mood of the day for the squad, as coaches and players agreed that a split with Georgetown, a first-year team in the Big East, was unacceptable.

‘I am not satisfied with a split to Georgetown, at all,’ Ross said. ‘If we think of ourselves as one of the top teams in the Big East, we cannot let those games slip by.’

‘We all agree on that, a split is just unacceptable,’ Kohl said.

Ross said she thinks the two teams could form a rivalry, taking into account Saturday’s special 12-inning start to the series.

‘It could develop into one of our bigger rivalries,’ Ross said. ‘I mean, this is only their fourth year and they are doing a good job. I guess we just have to see where it goes from here.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on April 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm