Extra-Inning State Championship Baseball Game Ends On Balk In Gut-Wrenching Scene

North Penn and Cedar Cliff squared off in what turned into an instant classic, edge-of-your-seat high school baseball state championship game with Pennsylvania bragging rights on the line. North Penn eventually ended up on the losing side of things, and while losing a state title game is always brutal, losing it in the fashion it did is a punch straight to the gut.

In what turned into the longest game in Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) history, neither team could score a run through 12 and a half innings in the contest played on the campus of Penn State. 

Cedar Cliff was able to load the bases in the bottom of the 13th with no outs, giving its side a phenomenal opportunity to finally end the game, and that's exactly what it did, but the winning run had nothing to do with a bat.

As North Penn pitcher Caleb Price stood on the rubber with a batter in the box, he moved his back leg without beginning his motion or moving his momentum towards the plate. The umpire paused the game and called a balk, giving Cedar Cliff its first state title in its baseball program's history.

Cedar Cliff breaking out in celebration just feet away from North Penn's catcher, distraught on his knees, turned into a brutal scene.

Some will say that the umpire could have let the balk slide given the situation, it's high school kids playing for a state title, after all, but then again, rules are rules.

The agony inside North Penn's locker room and the emotions Price had to feel both in the moment and in the days to come after being called for the balk had to have been wicked. It's a moment players and coaches on both sides will never forget, but for two polar opposite reasons.