Stone Crabs, Daytona play 19 innings

Former Auburn infielder Matt Hall was the losing pitcher for the Charlotte Stone Crabs tonight in a 4-3, 19-inning loss to the Daytona Cubs.

Yep, 19 innings.

There were 134 combined at-bats and each team used six pitchers, including infielder Hall and Daytona player-coach Matt Matulia. Matulia, the older brother of Montgomery's John Matulia, worked five shutout innings for the win.

The game began at 7:06 p.m. Eastern and lasted a War and Peace-like 5 hours, 13 minutes.

Kyler Burke doubled home Ryan Flaherty with the go-ahead run for Daytona, which scored three times in the first inning and went 17 straight scoreless from there. Freshly signed former major leaguer Rocco Baldelli -- shown at left -- was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in his Charlotte debut. He left after nine innings. (Photo from the Crabs and Nick Martinez.)

Your oh-my-goodness night goes to Daytona designated hitter Jake Opitz. He rolled a Magic-8 ball and was 0-for-8, dropping his average a tidy 16 points to .246.

I guess this makes up for the teams' Double-A brethren. The Smokies beat the Biscuits 4-2 tonight and only worked six innings because of rain.

Their low-Class A brethren also faced off Monday and finished in regulation with the Bowling Green Hot Rods taking a 7-5 victory over the Peoria Chiefs.

So, in 34 innings of play, Chicago Cubs minor leaguers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 13-12.