That's a terrible analogy. A ballgame where one side has 3 and another 12 does not go into overtime.
It's a game for which there is no analogy that I can think of. It's played to a certain number of points, like volleyball or tennis. But it is possible not to get enough points to win. Imagine volleyball where you are playing against 2 teams and have to get to 21. You get 10 against on and 8 against another. You have 18. Meanwhile the other guys have 12 and 4 points. So in this hypothetical game, you have to play again, but you also get to start with most of your points from the first game, and can trade favors with the scorekeepers to try to get more points so you can get 21. You can also try to get some points from the guys behind you.
It's insane, and no game in the world is played like that. If the horse trading leads to the guy with 12 getting the win, are the spectators going to leave thinking that guy is the winner? Will they be satisfied and maybe become fans? I don't think so.
If Cruz fights to the bitter end in the hope that he can deny Trump a majority and then take the nomination for himself (even though he will have at best 700 or so delegates at the convention) then everyone on earth, even the GOPe, will hate Ted Cruz and he will go down to a monumental defeat. If his treachery results in the GOPe getting Ryan the nomination, the end result will be just as bad.
As I wrote in post 148 above, the only thing Ted Cruz is doing by staying in the race is making a Hillary presidency more likely. Even if we hold our noses and vote for the Republican, as JimRob advises, it will be a useless gesture. There are too many people who won't, like with Romney, only even more pissed off this time.
Fact is also, if Trump can't force a hostile takeover by conservatives and patriotic Americans of the Republican party, no one earth can. It can't be done if he fails.
I'd agree that there is no sport that makes a perfect analogy for my point; but, then there is no sport that makes a perfect analogy for your point... although, perhaps a sport other than a ball game might might be better.
Although imperfect, consider a baseball game. For argument sake, say the Trump Bombers are winning 8 to 5 against the Cruz Constitutionalists (or 800 to 500, converting runs to delegates). At the bottom of the ninth, the team with the most runs is the winner; of course, the analogy is most imperfect here, as there is no winner unless one of the teams has 13 runs. There is nothing wrong with Team Cruz rallying in the 9th to tie, and winning it in the 10th or 11'th inning.
Oh, and btw, I see team Trump and team Cruz in the same league. In the National Series, I'm still rooting for the American League against the 'Rat League, regardless of whether its the Trump Bombers or Cruz Constitutionalists representing the American League.