[media-credit name=’Charlie Gorichanaz/The Badger Herald’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]http://http://vimeo.com/11370119

http://http://vimeo.com/11369166

Joey Labuz wins the game for The Badger Herald

http://http://vimeo.com/11369500

Bree Bunzel and Carl Horton discuss Charlie Gorichanaz’s (lack of) fashion sense, apparently?

VILAS PARK – The situation was perfect. It was the kind of scenario where legends are made. And with 2009’s hero watching from the dugout, the torch was passed to Joe Labuz.

Down 9-10 with two outs and two runners on, Labuz smashed a long home run over the heads of an already-deep Dirty Bird outfield for a walk-off home run, giving the Gentle Clowns of the Badger Herald a theatrical 12-10 win in the annual Herald-Cardinal softball game.

The Herald had what looked to be an insurmountable 9-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning. Pitcher Michael Bleach only needed three outs to close a Herald victory, bolstered by a six-run third inning by the Gentle Clowns. But in the nature of the Gentle Clown, the Herald gave the Cardinal an opportunity to come back – as the space ace always saves face.

“Yeah, I left a few pitches over the plate,” Bleach said. “You might say I was clowning around a bit too much.”

It was a rough inning, as the Dirty Bird managed to take the lead with some hard hit balls to the outfield, prompting defensive changes mid-inning. Bleach managed to get all three outs – a strikeout, a putout at first and a fly out to bring up the heart of the Herald lineup for the bottom of the seventh and the clutch hitting that would follow.

The Gentle Clowns struck early, with a run in the first inning, but went down 3-1 soon after. A big fourth inning — highlighted by another slam off the bat of Labuz gave the Herald a lead to play with for most of the game.