MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The sun was pounding down on Bryn Mawr Park, Field #8 Monday. For the first time this season, the Beagles’ roster was set at a perfectly equal five males and five females, and perhaps the lineup construction and continuity helped the offense to its biggest output of the season with 18 runs. Unfortunately for the Beagle Brigade, Rock Bottom had the bats working as well in a wild see-saw rematch of the opening week game.

The Beagle Brigade fell into an early 6-0 hole, but battled back to take a commanding 9-6 lead going to the bottom of the third. C.M. Walsh relieved Ryan Glanzer on the mound after three innings and immediately put a zero on the board. But Rock Bottom battled back to narrow the lead to 9-8 as the game wore on into the late innings.

Led by the hot bat of Craig Karjalainen and his third home run of the game, the Beagle Brigade struck for four runs in what appeared to be the sixth and final inning, taking a 12-8 lead. Rock Bottom then plated exactly four runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 12-12. The umpire declared that the game had gone past its 55-minute time limit, but agreed to play a final inning to settle the tight contest.

The seventh inning got off to a raucous start as the first six Beagle batters reached. A Sarah Domenichetti home run (as long as there are no errors in softball, it was a home run) plated Walsh in the inning, and the team plated six runs in the frame, taking a commanding 18-12 lead into the last half-inning.

That’s when a noisy train came barreling by in the background, causing communication issues amongst the Beagle Brigade fielders. Perfectly placed ground balls and line drives found their way over infielders’ heads and died shortly before reaching the outfielders’ out-stretched gloves. Before the third out was recorded, Rock Bottom had managed to tie the game at 18-18, with their big gun due up. A man appearing to be the oldest member of the Rock Bottom team had, like Karjalainen, a trio of home runs on the day. But on this at-bat, a long fly ball fell straight into the glove of Domenichetti, ending the game in an 18-18 tie.

Notes: The Beagle Brigade improved to 2-3-2 on the season. It was the fourth time in seven games that the team had the lead going to the bottom half of the final inning, but only once has the team held on for the victory… First baseman Bradley Feeney appeared to be pretty hard on himself after misplaying a routine foul pop-up in the first inning, but the team reassured him it wasn’t that costly… One of the highlights of the game involved a girl-on-girl home plate collision when Beagle substitute Carey slid into the female catcher for Rock Bottom, getting tagged out and shooting up a cloud of dust… Ryan Glanzer went 4-for-4 on the day, improving his season average to .736… Karjalainen leads the team with 6 home runs.