Lawrence High’s Derek Bailey said he was just hoping to get plunked by a pitch  honestly.

At that point  the bottom of the eighth inning in a 12-all tie during a wacky baseball game between LHS and Emporia that already had exceeded three hours  any strategy was worth a try.

But when EHS pitcher Jeremy Way’s fastball lingered down the heart of the plate, Bailey tossed his thinking aside and let it rip.

It was a good thing, too, because Bailey smashed a line drive to the left-field fence that would have cleared the bases, which were loaded with Lions, but just needed to plate Aaron Madill for the game-winner as LHS defeated No. 3-ranked Emporia, 13-12, Wednesday night at Ice Field.

“I really walked up there trying to take a pitch off the shoulder,” said a beaming Bailey. “He hung it right over the plate and I swung.”

Bailey’s heroics not only capped a game that was built around big plays and even bigger mistakes, but also concluded one of the stranger baseball days that Emporia coach Keith Hughey could recall.

“It was kind of crazy,” said Hughey, whose team is 10-4. “At school tomorrow they’re going to be dragging.”

Before the Spartans’ 31/2-hour, second-game marathon, Emporia defeated Free State, 10-3, at the FSHS field in a game that saw the Firebirds’ solid day on the mound erased by two innings of pitching miscues.

The nightcap offered more of the day’s off-the-wall occurrences, though, as there were more bases on balls, wild pitches, past balls and hits batters than hits or runs  and the two teams combined for 25 runs and 22 hits.

“It’s one of the craziest high school games I’ve seen in a long time,” said LHS coach David Petry, whose team improved to 11-5 overall and moved into the top spot for regional assignments.

“For six innings we can’t stop each other, and then all of a sudden the runs stop and we go extra innings and can’t score.”

While EHS went down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh inning, the first time that happened all game, the Lions just missed finishing things in regulation.

With two outs, Troy Wingert walked and advanced on a smashed single by Tommy Mangino. But Joe Bell struck out to end the inning.

Emporia threatened in what would be its final at-bat as Brian Dorsey singled with two outs. Dano Wysocki followed with a double that rolled to the outfield wall and Dorsey was waved around to try to score.

Didn’t happen.

Rob Scott quickly retrieved the ball and hit cut-off man Chris Johnson, who in the same motion, fired it home to Wingert to nail Dorsey by a good five feet.

“I knew he was going,” Johnson said. “Rob got to it quick and gave me a good throw. I just turned and let it go.”

With three runs already in during the home half of the second inning, including two off a Mike Morrell homer, and three runners on base, Wingert delivered a grand slam.

However, he missed touching home plate and LHS received the automatic out.

“He hits a grand slam and forgets to finish it,” Petry said.

Johnson believes that while the Lions gained positioning for the regionals and other season goals, they will have to first take care of business against Free State today at the FSHS field at 5:30 p.m.

“It’s the last time I’ll play them,” the senior said. “It’s a big game, but we’re on a roll right now and if we keep going like we can, we’ll beat ’em.”