Photo by Ryan Houck/The Slate

No Hitter Makes History

By Ryan Houck
Asst. Sports Editor

Where were you Saturday at 2:28 p.m.?  For the crowd assembled at Fairchild Field, the moment will go down as one of the greatest moments in recent years for the SU baseball program as senior Tim Freshour notched the first Red Raider no hitter in 13 seasons in a 2-0 win over Lock Haven.

Freshour, who had been at the top of his game all day working the corners of the plate, faced Lock Haven senior Ted Stake.  Looking to put an exclamation point on the no-no, Freshour battled Stake at the plate, as Stake pushed the count full.  Stake popped up a pitch into foul territory in the direction of the SU dugout.  SU first baseman Kevin Scholly darted over and positioned himself to make the catch.  

Scholly made the squeeze and a mob of SU players flew out of the dugout in Freshour’s direction ready to celebrate the first SU no hitter since 1996.  SU Head Coach Matt Jones was thrilled with the performance from his ace.

“I thought it was classic Tim, he did what he’s been doing for the past two years. The stars just lined up for this one,” said Jones of the outing.

After Freshour retired the side in order in the Lock Haven sixth inning, things got oddly quiet in the SU dugout.  There were no black cats, broken mirrors or voodoo dolls, but the entire SU team recalled the superstitions associated with a pitcher in the midst of a no hitter.

“You just hope there’s not someone on the bench who doesn’t understand all the mojo and unwritten rules,” said Jones.  “We had a couple close calls and had to tell guys not to finish their sentences.”

Freshour, however, was cool as a cucumber as he waited to take the field for the final inning.

“Nobody talks to you,” explained Freshour.  “I have my own spot in the dugout that I sit at every game.  I normally superstitious, so not much changed.”

The only blemishes on Freshour’s resume Saturday were walks to Lock Haven’s Jermaine Cook and Matt Palko in the third and seventh innings respectively.  It took Freshour only 85 pitches to record 4 strikeouts.

While the SU offense’s numbers were off all day, Freshour got the run support he needed for the win in the Shippensburg half of the third inning.  

Sophomore catcher Kris Kullman started the inning with a single.  Kullman advanced to second off a sacrifice groundout by junior Rick Shumway and then get to third when senior Kyle Rhoades reached first on a throwing error by Lock Haven’s Ryan Griffin at second.  Kullman and Rhoades would score on timely at-bats by senior Tyler Redick and sophomore Steve McCardell.  Rhoades’ run would go down as unearned as the Bald Eagles could have gotten out of the inning had it not been for the error.

Offensively, Jones was a little disappointed with the performance at the dish.  

“We’re not getting bunts down we haven’t had quality two strike at bats and we haven’t moved runners into scoring position,” confessed Jones.  “I have a lot of confidence in our offense but those are the little things we need to do.”

For Freshour, the Lock Haven bats were stifled by the SU pitching performance.  

“When he throws pitches at the knees like that there are not many teams that are going to hit off him,” said Lock Haven Head Coach Paul “Smokey” Stover.  “You’ve got to give him credit, he was nasty today.”

As for Freshour, who pushed his season record to 5-2, he gave a lot of credit to the eight other gloves on the field during the no hitter.  

“There were about five or six balls that were sketchy, and I wasn’t sure if they were going to be outs.  Without them, no of that could have happened,” said Freshour.  Freshour was named PSAC East Pitcher of the Week Monday for his performance.

While Game 1 of Saturday’s double header dominated the headlines, SU senior pitcher Andrew Burke pieced together a gem of his own.  In six innings of work, Burke gave up six hits and three runs on his way to second win of the season in a 4-3 decision.  Burke dominated with his off-speed pitches, fooling Lock Haven into seven strikeouts.

Burke opened the game on fire but ran into some trouble in the sixth inning as he slowed down his dominant pace.  
“He wasn’t making many mistakes,” said Stover of Burke.  “I don’t know if he was getting tired, but when he slowed down we were able to get a few hits.”

Lock Haven found two of its runs in the inning as the Bald Eagles’ Matt McCamley swatted a two out single that brought  around the two runs to score.  Burke was able to record a strike out for the final out in the inning before Redick came in from center field to shut down the Lock Haven offense and record his fourth save of the season.

SU found its game-winning runs in the fourth as Kullman and Rhoades recorded RBI’s in the inning.

Stover was blown away by the performance of the SU pitching staff Saturday.  “SU’s pitching was great today, that’s the best bang-bang performance we’ve seen all year,” said 17th year coach at Lock Haven.

Saturday’s double header sweep was quite different from SU’s two outings earlier in the week. The Red Raiders split double headers with IUP on Tuesday and Lock Haven on Friday. Up to that point, Jones was frustrated with his team’s inability to find wins.  

“We’re six games under .500 and were giving games away,” said Jones Tuesday.  “If we keep playing like that we’re going to end our season with the final regular season game.”

It was Saturday, however, that may have provided the spark SU (12-16) needs to finish the season strong.  

“I really hope that after a bunch of wins [we look back and see] that it all started with Tim’s no-no and just went from there,” said Jones Saturday.  “Who knows what it’s going to take to be the catalyst, but we have a stretch of games where we need to do well.”