On Aug. 18, 1981 in Saginaw, Midland Valley Mechanical faced off against The Farm of Madison, Wis. The two pitchers were Peter Finn of Valley Mechanical and Peter Meredith of The Farm.

The game began early in the evening and dragged on into the wee hours of the next morning. Tied at 1-1, it went on and on until the bottom of the 34th inning, when Valley pushed across the winning run.

The inning began with a walk to Art Tolfree. After Jack Starling struck out, Ken Gay doubled, sending Tolfree to third. Dave "Tuck" Bedford then singled to score Tolfree with the winning run.

The game ended seven hours and 26 minutes after it began.

Statistics from the game showed Finn giving up nine hits and one earned run in 34 innings. He walked six and struck out 64. Meredith allowed two earned runs in 33 1/3 innings. He gave up 12 hits, walked three, and struck out 42 while taking the loss.

Valley left 16 runners on base and The Farm stranded 15.

Among the other Valley players in the lineup, besides Starling at second base, were Jim Wright at first and Doug Fillmore in right field.

The game was of such significance that it gained mention on NBC's Today Show. Also, pictures from the game appeared in many newspapers throughout the nation.

Ironically, neither team made it to the ISC championship game. In that game, Mark Smith of the Camarillo (Calif.) Kings outdueled Bob Childress of the Tulsa (Okla.) Firebirds as Camarillo won the first of back-to-back ISC titles.

* On Thursday, I had a helper while announcing ISC Tournament games on Diamond 3 at Emerson Park. Her name was Emersen Hoon, an 8-year-old third-grader at Plymouth Elementary School.

Emersen is the daughter of Becki and Mike Hoon. "We named her Emersen, except with an 'e' instead of 'o' because that's where Mike and I met," said Becki in reference to Emerson Park.

In this year's ISC Tournament, Mike Hoon was recruited to play for the Venezuelan team that was short of players due to visa problems.

Emersen quickly made friends with the Venezuelans and didn't let the language barrier stand in her way. How could they not like this bright-faced youngster with an infectious smile?

Having helped a friend of her sister who was volunteering at this year's ISC tourney, Emersen said, "I tried it out and ended up liking it."

By the time she came to help me, Emersen had already announced several games. She could pronounce the Spanish language names far more accurately than I could.

After her experience this week, Emersen said she would like to do it some more.

As for playing softball, she was a pitcher in the four-team 10-and-under league organized by her mother this summer.

* During the ISC Hall of Fame induction breakfast Sunday at the Valley Plaza Resort, two former members of the Midland Explorers were among the inductees.

Paul Algar pitched here in 1988 after being recruited by Oren Mieske, the Explorers' manager in 1986 and '87. "Somebody gave me his phone number in New Zealand, so I gave him a call," Mieske said.

The other inductee, Shawn Rychcik, an infielder/outfielder, played for the Explorers during the 1992 and '93 seasons.

Don Winger is the retired executive sports editor of the Daily News.