The Boll Weevil notebook...The fans were
booing Brad Baisley in Hagerstown Thursday night when the Piedmont Boll Weevils hit the
field to take on the Suns.
When the game had ended, they were cheering him.
That’s what a no-hitter can do.
Baisley tossed the second no-hitter in Boll Weevil
history in a sensational 134-pitch effort. The 6-foot-10, 19-year-old diaper dandy never
had a ball hit very hard against him in the 3-0 victory.
He faced just four batters over the minimum,
recording the first complete-game, no-hitter in Municipal Stadium since the Suns arrived
in 1981.
Ken Oberkfell was his usual low-key self about it.
He has come to expect greatness from the No. 1 draft choice from Tampa.
Hagerstown manager Rolando Pino was more than
complimentary.
“That was a tremendous job,” Pino told
the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. “It was a great performance. He got ahead of us and
finished us off. We only had one hard-hit ball all night.’’
And that ball was tracked down by right-fielder
Carlos Acevedo.
The only other questionable play was on a roller
to third. But as Oberkfell said, “It was an error, no doubt about it.”
Baisley came into the game ranked fourth in ERA
(2.40). Those numbers shrunk to 2.26 after the no-hitter.
Baisley (10-7) was perfect in six of the innings
and retired the last 10 hitters. The Suns had trouble picking up his pitches and it helped
Baisley have a 12-strikeout night.
The strikeout numbers show how powerful Baisley
was. He is not a strikeout pitcher, having recorded just 98 before the start.
Hagerstown won the Northern Division winner in the
first half and was hitting .257 coming in.
“That’s a good team,” said
Oberkfell. “Everything was working for Baisley. He had a good fastball, a good
breaking ball and a good changeup.”
“My two-seamer (fastball) was doing real
well,” Baisley told the Herald-Mail. “The catcher was setting up on the outside
of the plate and the ball was diving over.
“I got some good calls from the ump,
too.”
The Suns threatened only twice. In the third, a
runner reached second but a double play ended that. In the sixth, a man reached second but
Baisley ended things with a strikeout.
Meanwhile, Baisley, who always pitches better when
the Weevils get him some early runs, received three first-inning runs and cruised from
there.
Baisley wasn’t as shocked over his no-hitter
as he was the fan reaction afterward. The 1,265 total cheered him and then charged him for
autographs.
“They were all yelling at me during the game
and now, they want me to sign autographs,” Baisley marveled. “But that’s
all right.”
n
THE
FRAME:
The Weevils had just four games in 19 days going into this week. The only three home games
in the past week and a half was last week.
“If I had my way, we wouldn’t be home on
a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” said vice-president Todd Parnell.
Parnell’s goal of reaching 130,000 fans may
be tough, considering he has just eight more home games from Aug. 21-29.
“What hurts us was that we had five rainouts
this season compared to two last year,” he said.
The Weevils are averaging an all-time high of
1,821, thanks mainly to Parnell’s package of promotions.
n
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