go crazy?

In the immortal words of Jack Buck: “I don’t believe what I just saw.” Tougaloo beat Belhaven at Smith-Wills Stadium today. For the first time ever. Granted, the Bulldogs’ program hasn’t been around that long, but it has established a legacy of losing. A lot. Put it this way, Belhaven, ranked 12th in the latest NAIA poll, has won more games this season (12) than Tougaloo has won in its history. The Bulldogs, 0-13 and outscored 135-24 this season before today’s victory, were 0-77 all-time in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference before winning a conference game last year. Belhaven was the GCAC champ in 2010. So this was monumentally historic. The final was 2-1. Belhaven, hitting .313 as a team, managed two infield singles against Tougaloo’s Michael Langston, a little left-hander who baffled them with off-speed junk for nine innings. Langston, a senior from Chicago, threw about 125 pitches. He likely could’ve thrown 125 more. He never threw anything over 72 mph and operated in the 60s most of the time. He picked off two baserunners, and BU had another runner gunned down at third base on an attempted steal. The Blazers pushed across an unearned run in the first inning. Tougaloo tied it in the third on an RBI double by its imposing cleanup batter, William Walker. The Bulldogs took the lead in the eighth on a two-hit by Dustin Triplett. Langston, who came in with a 12.27 ERA in three previous games, made it stand up, stranding the tying run at third in the ninth. Where did this come from? Who knows? Stuff happens in baseball, as a shocked crowd at Smith-Wills today could attest.