George Mason baseball makes history with 23 runs in a single inning against Holy Cross

College basketball is receiving the bulk of attention in collegiate sports right now, with both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments right around the corner. But things are starting to heat up on the diamonds as well, as both baseball and softball seasons are getting into gear.

On Tuesday the George Mason baseball team hosted Holy Cross for the final game of an eight-game homestand at Spuhler Field in Fairfax, Virginia. Left-hander Ty Uchman was on the bump for the Patriots, who looked to improve on their 7-4 record against the 5-4 Crusaders.

Not only did George Mason get the win on Tuesday in Fairfax, they set a new NCAA record along the way.

The game began innocently enough as Uchman set the Crusaders down in order in the first, and George Mason went 1-2-3 themselves in the bottom of the inning. After Uchman pitched a scoreless top of the second Patriots infielder Jake Butler led off the bottom of the second with an out on a bunt attempt toward third base.

After that, 27 more batters came to the plate as the Patriots scored an astonishing 23 runs in the frame. Butler’s out was followed by eight walks, six singles, five doubles, four hit batters, three throwing errors — two of which came on the same play — one passed ball, four pitching changes, and two stolen bases. Both of those steals came from the same player, on two different plate appearances in the inning.

You can see the entire box score here.

As for Butler, who started the inning? He came to the plate FOUR times in the frame. After making the first out of the inning he was plunked in his second at-bat and eventually scored on one of the throwing errors. Then in his third plate appearance of the inning, Butler was plunked again, scoring on another throwing error.

He finally grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring the inning to a merciful close in his fourth at-bat of the frame.

But not until the Patriots had made some NCAA baseball history.