Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Burlington Bees
April 12th, 2004
E-Jones, Cox, Kaaihue, LOB WIS-1, BUR-5, 2B-Maier 2, SB-Sanchez
| Wisconsin |
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0 |
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2 |
| Burlington |
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3 |
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HB-McFall (Acosta), WP-Acosta, PB-Ruchti, SO-Womack, Balentien, Dutton, Colton, Cox, Navarro, Lubanski, Maier 2, BB-Cox, Graham
T-1:55, A-529
Appleton Post Crescent
Burlington's Dusty Hughes and Jake Mullis combined to throw a no hitter in leading the Bees past the Wisconsin TimberRattlers 3-0 Monday night in a Midwest League game in Burlington, Iowa. The duo faced the minimum 27 batters.
Hughes threw eight innings, striking out six and walking one to earn his first victory of the season. Mullis pitched the final inning for the save.
The game was scoreless until the eighth when Burlington scored all three of their runs with two outs. Mitch Maier came up with the big hit when he doubled down the left field line to drive in a pair.
Wisconsin starter Nibaldo Acosta pitched well, scattering two hits and allowing no earned runs in seven innings of work.
In all, Acosta and relievers Brandon Perry and Michael Hrynio gave up only one earned run.
Burlington Hawk Eye
by Susan Denk
The accomplishment passed rather quietly in the chill of the April night. In the clubhouse, though the Burlington Bees celebrated two great feats.
Dusty Hughes pitched eight innings of no hit baseball and Jake Mullis finished with one perfect inning against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to combine for the 13th no hitter in Burlington history. The gem resulted in a 3-0 Midwest League victory over Wisconsin, the first win for the Bees in this young season.
Only a handful of t he 529 in attendence at Community Field remained as Josh Womack popped out to short stop Angel Sanchez to end the game after a speedy one hour, 55 minutes.
Hughes cruised along after warming up on the cold night, at one point striking out four straigh batters and six of seven in the third, fourth and fifth innings. The 20 year old Mississippian did not even realize what he was crafting until and inning later.
"Really until about the sixth inning I had no clue I had a no hitter," said Hughes, who has an eight inning collegiate no hitter and back to back seven inning high school no hitters on his resume. "I felt like I was getting quick outs. I was making good pitches. They were swinging a lot at my two seam fastballs and rolling over them. i was getting fortunate with that.
"But other than that I didn't look up until the sixth inning. I was like, 'They don't have any hits'. And then it kind of went from there".
"He was in total command," said Burlington manager Jim Gabelaa, "He changed speeds. He used both sides of the plate. He just did a great job."
The only baserunners for the Timber Rattlers (0-4) came in the first batter of the game, who reached on throwing error by first baseman Kila Kaaihue and Hughes' only walk, to Michael Cox in the eighth.
Hughes' teammates followed baseball's rule of not memtioning the N' word to the pitcher. Although Mullis heard about it right before he took the mound.
"I knew we had a no hitter going. (Pitchers Steve) Bray and (Greg) Atencio right before I went out there said, 'Jake, don't think about the no hitter we've got going'. That made me laugh a little bit". Mullis said.
Because of a pitch count of 85 the Bees' staff did not let Hughes back out in the ninth to finish the game.
"At this point, to an extent," Hughes said when asked if he was disappointed he did not have the chance to finish the no hitter, "but it's our first win, my first outing. I didn't want to overdo it. I threw like 90 pitches, which is right where I'm supposed to be. It was the right call. Mullis finishd it up for us which is good. We got the three runs that we needed."
While the move did not bother Hughes, it bothered the Burlington fans, who booed Mullis when he was introduced.
"I throw my warm up pitches and the crowd boos me when I get introduced. I don't blame them but I was just trying to get ahead, keep the ball down because I knew thy were going to hit ground ball because they've been doing it all night." Mullis said. "That's pretty much what I was trying to do. I was just trying to finish up what Hughes' started. He did great."
Kila Kaaihue, who scored the only run in Jonah Bayliss' no hitter last season with a home run in the sixth, scored the first, and only run the Bees needed, in the eighth inning. He reached on a fielder's choice and then scored on Sanchez's single. Mitch Maier doubled home the other two runs for Burlington.