On Thursday night at Blair County Ballpark, before 7,973 fans, Dave Crouthers, Andy Mitchell and No. 2 Eastern League saves leader Jacobo Sequea combined to toss a nine-inning no-hitter against the Altoona Curve in a 2-0 win.
Chris Duffy led off the Curve first by drawing a base on balls. Duffy advanced to second on a slow roller to short by Mike Moriarty, but was stranded there by Crouthers, who pitched the first seven innings to improve his record to 8-8 with the victory.
The Curve had plenty of base runners, but none would touch third base. Third baseman Tom Evans walked to lead off the fourth inning and Ray Sadler walked to begin the sixth. Both were erased by shortstop-to-second-to-first double plays. Nate McLouth walked with one down in the seventh and stole second base, but was left there when Crouthers fanned both Evans and Brad Eldred. Evans had his 12-game hit streak stopped
Finally Ronny Paulino walked with one gone in the eighth but stayed at first when submariner Mitchell retired the next two Altoona batters on a strikeout and groundout. Paulino reached base for the 23rd straight game with the base on balls.
Probably the ninth inning against Sequea, featured the Curve’s best opportunity to break up the no-no. With one out, Moriarty hit a looping liner to short left-center. With the grass wet from several rain showers, Baysox centerfielder Keith Reed made a sliding, diving catch for the second out of the frame. Then McLouth hit a swinging bunt down the third base line. Bowie third baseman Kris Wilken charged, made a bare-handed grab for the ball and threw the ball in the same motion. It appeared the speedy McLouth had the throw beaten, but first base umpire Jason Klein rang him up for the final out of the game, to complete the no-hitter. Sequea pitched the final inning to pick up his 23rd save, just one behind EL leader Bobby Korecki of New Britain.
Both Curve manager Tony Beasley and McLouth thought McLouth was safe at first, but Klein hustled quickly off the field before any discussion or appeal could be made.
“We get a man on, we have our four and five batters coming up to possibly tie the game,” said Beasley. “But he called him out, so we just have to live with it. You hate to get no-hit, good night, you hate for that to ever happen. We just didn’t swing the bats tonight. The first guy challenged us with a lot of fastballs, we weren’t catching up and when we did hit the ball it was right at somebody. We couldn’t find a hole. It was one of those nights we couldn’t get anything going-you have to tip your hat to their guys. We have battled back all year when we have been down, hopefully although we now have a different group of guys, tomorrow they will respond.”
McLouth replied to questions about the game-ending play that “I was definitely safe at first. Jason ran off the field so there could be no discussion, that was obvious,” said the Curve right fielder, who switched over to center when Chris Duffy reinjured his wrist. “Its human nature, he missed it and the he ran off the field. Crouthers wasn’t throwing strikes, he walked four, but I guess he made pitches when it counted. He was throwing strikes with his fastball, then when we would get ready, he would throw his slider and it was just working for him tonight.”
None of the three Altoona pitchers did a bad job. Bowie’s moundsmen simply did better on this day.
Bobby Bradley allowed a first-inning tally and it cost him the loss. Bradley walked leadoff batter Gary Cates, who moved to second on a single by Ed Rogers and third on a wild pitch by Bradley and scored on an RBI groundout to short by Reed. Bradley allowed one run on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk in five innings.
“This was just a loss, it wasn’t a tough loss,” explained Bradley. “We’ll bounce back tomorrow. That’s not a big deal, I think we have a pretty good lead and we will go out and take them on. We have three more games against them. Hopefully we can take the next three and go from there.”
Elio Serrano took over to pitch the sixth and seventh and had two outs in the eighth when he suffered an injury and was forced to come out. Serrano allowed one run on four hits with one K and one base on balls in two and 2/3 innings.
Bowie put three hits together to score their second run in the seventh. Cates singled in Brandon Florence, who had singled with one out and advanced to second on a two-out base hit by Brandon Fahey.
Cates, Fahey and Rogers each had two singles to lead the Baysox.
Curve right-hander Ian Snell has been called up to the Pittsburgh Pirates for the weekend series at St. Louis. Snell compiled a 10-7 mark at Altoona with 126 strikeouts, a Curve franchise record in 138 innings with an ERA of 3,26. Snell is expected to pitch out the bullpen in the second game of today’s doubleheader against the Cards.
The four-game series continues tonight with Altoona throwing right-hander Matt Peterson (9-4, 3.47), acquired in the Kris Benson trade, against Baysox righty Hayden Penn (6-5, 3.80).
