Baseball is a beautiful game that shows us different things on different days. As fans we really never see the same thing happen twice over a period of two different games. Each day we see something new. And this can be said for a Minor League game that took place on Sunday June 28th, 2009 between the Lake Elsinore Storm and the High Desert Mavericks. These two teams, of Class-A ball, combined for a 33-18 final score.

Lake Elsinore is an affiliate of the San Diego Padres and High Desert is an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. More than one record was broken in the game but only two records dealt with an individual effort from two of the players involved in this historic game.

The personal record is a 36 game hitting streak set by James McOwen of High Desert. His two hits in six at-bats broke the California League record for consecutive games with a hit.

“I feel the same as I did yesterday and probably the day before,” McOwen said. “I guess it’s a little monkey off the back just to say you got it done. I didn’t want to fall one-game short or end in a three-way tie. I’m pretty much the same guy I was before.”

The game was the longest in league history, at four hours and ten minutes, but did not go past nine innings. The Lake Elsinore Storm broke the league record for hits in a game with 32. The record was previously held by Stockton (8/1/93) and Rancho Cucamonga (8/10/97) with 29 hits in a game.

The two teams combined for 51 runs, a new league record, while the Storm also set the league record for RBIs in a single game. With their 33 runs, the Storm fell one run shy of the league record for runs scored in a game by a team.

Matt Clark, of Lake Elsinore, set the league record for runs scored in a game with seven. He fell a double shy of hitting for the cycle after going five for six at the plate. He added two homeruns and five RBIs.

Each team also blasted five homeruns apiece for a total of ten for the game. High Desert Nathan Adcock started on the mound and allowed eight runs (all earned) on seven hits in only 2/3 of an inning worked. Surprisingly his ERA only jumped to 4.54.

Ironically, on June 20th, Adcock threw eight scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and two hits allowed against Inland Empire for his fifth win of the season. That’s why the game of baseball is such a beautiful sport. Anything can happen once the umpire yells ‘Play Ball!’