by Jonathan Vander Lugt

When Mt. Airy Stars’ Sam Istvan wound up to pitch to the game’s final batter, the field lights went out about two pitches before the game’s end. Everybody did a double take in disbelief, chuckled a bit, and Istvan gathered himself and pitched nonetheless.

The batter hit a grounder to the hole between first and second where Jahlil Freeman ranged over, made the play, and closed the game. The prematurely dark field put a strange end on a wild, long game, but the Mt. Airy Stars will take the 7-5, season-ending victory over N.E.O. nonetheless.

The win sealed second place in Philadelphia County American Legion’s standings, setting a date with Bustleton for a best-of-three playoff series, but the path to get there was, in a word, weird.

“The biggest thing is that we’ve got to stay focused for the whole game,” said Ahmad Hall, who played third and provided a good deal of offense on the evening. “We’ve got to stay intense and keep the pressure on the other team.”

His words were in response to the early deficit Mt. Airy found itself in. By the time Istvan entered the game in the fifth, N.E.O. led 5-2 on the strength of seven free passes and a hit batsman, but the Stars’ offense was climbing back.

N.E.O.’s pitchers were just as wild, if not a bit luckier to that point, having walked six themselves. Danny Fehler and Jack Gontowski drew a pair more in the bottom of the fifth to set up Hall’s two-RBI single.

“I just wanted to stay focused,” Hall said. “In big situations, you’ve got to slow down your heartbeat. You know what you’ve got to do—just execute.”

He did, and so did Istvan (though not without walking another two) by keeping N.E.O off the scoreboard in the top of the sixth. The bottom half is where the shenanigans truly began.

Thomas Primosch and Freeman walked (of course) to start the inning. Fehler bunted his way to first, and Gontowski hit a sacrifice fly, moving each runner ahead a base. Tie game, in a fairly routine (if time-consuming) way.

Tommy Laws, already upset from a strikeout in his previous at-bat, struck out again in the next. N.E.O.’s catcher missed the pitch, so Laws broke for first. Laws isn’t exactly fleet afoot, so on any other base-out state, the play would have been easy.

But with Freeman threatening on third, the catcher hesitated, allowing Laws to reach. Left without a play at first, he threw to third to try to catch Freeman leading too far off. He did—Freeman was stuck in no-man’s-land—but N.E.O. botched the rundown and let the go-ahead run score.

For those keeping track at home, that’s essentially a go-ahead strikeout. Not something you see every day.

Hall came up big again in the next at-bat, knocking in an insurance run with an RBI single to wrap up the scoring for Mt. Airy. Istvan pitched a 1-2-3 (interrupted by the aforementioned lighting snafu) to notch the win.

“I play hard all the time,” said Hall, who was visibly excited after his second hit of the day. “If you see me pumping my fist, that’s what it is.

“I’ll run through a brick wall for these guys. I’m excited, because that’s an extra run we’ve got and another way to help out.”

He finished the day 2-for-4 with his three runs driven in. Istvan got the win, throwing the game’s last three innings while fanning four, walking two, and not allowing a hit. The two teams allowed a combined 22 walks and a hit batsman—better than a third of a mile’s worth of free passes.

Istvan wasn’t one of the main perpetrators of the game’s staggering bases-on-balls total, but said “It’s been a long layoff since my last outing.”

It didn’t seem that way, given how sharp he was.

“I was just focusing on pounding my fastball and hitting my spots,” he said.

The win sent Mt. Airy into the league playoffs on a tear, with nine wins in the Stars’ last ten games.

“It’s big,” Istvan said. “There probably isn’t a team that’s in a better position than we are right now.”

They weren’t in first, but their regular season was complete after the win. Loudenslager, the eventual regular-season champs, on the other hand, still had a few left to play. By the time the first game of the playoffs rolled around on Tuesday, Mt. Airy’s arms were well-rested and ready to go.

“We’re getting timely hits,” Istvan said. “We’re making routine plays, and we’re throwing strikes. That’s a sign of a good team.”