The game was not going into an 11th inning.

That decision was made because the teams had run out of pitchers and (get this) the league had run out of specially made all-star baseballs.

Macon Brave Juan Boscan made sure the 5,565 fans who packed into Joseph P. Riley Stadium didn’t go home feeling like they had just kissed their sister by driving home the winning run for the South in the bottom of the 10th on a sacrifice fly. It was the second run of the inning and gave the South a 5-4 victory.

The North loss ruined an otherwise beautiful two-day stay in Charleston for the Piedmont Boll Weevils’ Greg Legg, who managed the North, and for five Boll Weevil players: starters Nate Espy, Marlon Byrd and Jay Sitzman, reserve catcher Russ Jacobson and reliever Mark Outlaw.

The North led 3-1, thanks to Espy’s double and eventual run in the sixth. Delmarva’s Willie Harris, the designated hitter, drove him in.

The North was cruising into the bottom of the ninth as seven relievers combined to allow just one hit from the second through eighth innings. Outlaw, a lefty, did his part in the eighth, striking out one and getting the South out in order.

But Legg inserted Jose Franco of Greensboro to finish off the South in the bottom of the ninth and instead, the South finished him off. Franco gave up three hits and two runs without recording an out and the game was tied at 3-3.

Cape Fear’s Julie Perez got out of the jam without further damage and the North scored in the top of the 10th for a 4-3 lead on Harris’ homer.

But once again, the North couldn’t hold the lead. Josh Hamilton, a Charleston RiverDog and the obvious crowd favorite, tripled and scored on a double by Hank Blalock, who then scored on Boscan’s sacrifice fly for the game-winner.

Hamilton was named Star of Stars for his two-triple, two-run evening.