UNC-Oregon State's 4-hour, 24-minute game was the fifth CWS contest to eclipse the four-hour markGETTY IMAGES
North Carolina on Saturday defeated Oregon State in the longest nine-inning game in College World Series history, and a rules official said that "all existing measures to keep up the pace of play were followed by the umpires," according to Evan Bland of the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD. The 4-hour, 24-minute game was the "fifth CWS contest to eclipse the four-hour mark," but it was the first that "didn't go into extra innings." Players "rarely left the batter’s box during at-bats, and the 1-minute, 50-second breaks between innings were enforced." NCAA baseball has a "two-year rules cycle, with any changes set to be implemented" in '19. Among pace-of-play changes the rules committee "will consider" are limiting mound visits, no-pitch intentional walks and a pitch clock. But with the NCAA’s ideal game length at about three hours, there is "motivation to make some tweaks." NCAA Assistant Dir of Championships & Alliances Ben Brownlee said, "It’s something that we feel is a relatively important task for the rules committee this year because of viewership, and not just TV viewership but people going to a game." The average CWS game last year "lasted 3:15." The "highest average was 3:38" in '09. It has "dipped under three hours" once since '03 -- 2:54 in '12. UNC coach Mike Fox said, "Sometimes it’s agonizing for other people to watch because it’s like, ‘Really? We’re in the third inning and we’ve played two hours already?’ So it is what it is. But we’re not trying to drag it out by design" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 6/17).
