WINDY CITY DEFENSE WINS FIRST EVER SUDDEN DEATH TIEBREAKER
May 17, 2022 - Crestwood, IL - For the first time in professional baseball history, the sudden death extra inning rule was put into effect as the Windy City ThunderBolts were credited with a 3-3 win over the Ottawa Titans at Ozinga Field Tuesday night.
The host ThunderBolts and Titans ended nine innings of play tied at 3. After neither team scored under International Tiebreaker rules in the 10th, the game shifted to sudden death mode to determine a winner.
Under new Frontier League rules, if a game remains tied after ten innings (or eight innings for a double-header contest), a sudden death inning will determine the winner. As the home team, the ThunderBolts got to choose to play offense or defense. They chose to take the field with Ottawa beginning the inning with a runner at first. If the Titans scored, they'd win the game. If the ThunderBolts prevented Ottawa from scoring, they would be winners. No 2022 Frontier League game had gone past ten innings, so this was the first time the new rule was in play.
With Brendon Dadson placed at first base for Ottawa, ThunderBolt pitcher Layne Schnitz-Paxton took the drama quickly out of the outcome as first batter of the inning, Clay Fisher, grounded into a double play. Jacob Sanford then grounded out to give the ThunderBolts the win. The official final score goes down as 3-3.
Schnitz-Paxton (1-0) pitched two innings and picked up his first win of the year. There is no credited losing pitcher.
The Sudden Death Tiebreaker was first proposed in 2019 by former Florence manager and Frontier League All-Star player Dennis Pelfrey. Pelfrey is now with the San Francisco Giants organization and manages the Richmond Flying Spiders, their Double-A affiliate.
The specifics of the rule were refined by a committee of current Frontier League managers, including Evansville's Andy McCauley, the league's longest tenured manager; Bobby Brown from Ottawa; and Pat Scalabrini from Quebec. The three managers have combined for over 70 seasons in independent baseball.
The Frontier League enters its 29th season in 2022 as the largest of Major League Baseball's Professional Partner Leagues, featuring 16 teams from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Ohio River to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Please visit www.frontierleague.com for complete information on the 2022 season.
