Southmont Mounties | Archive | May, 2010

His pitches were unhittable.

The Mounties' defense was impeccable.

And Ruiz reached a major milestone - throwing the first no-hitter of his career.

Ruiz struck out seven batters and walked two as he no-hit Sagamore Athletic Conference rival Lebanon in a 1-0 home win.

Ruiz threw 78 pitches and the Mounties didn't commit an error.

"His
curveball was really on tonight. We talked about a little before to
save a little in the tank to go all seven innings instead of going hard
early. He did that tonight," Southmont coach Marty Ruiz said. "He had
all batters guessing and we had solid defense. That [no-hitter] doesn't
really happen without solid defense. We finally put together a game
with solid defense. We had five three-and-out innings. That's huge and
something we haven't been able to do all year."

Southmont
(4-17, 3-9 SAC) scored its lone run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
With junior Aaron Wheeler at second base, senior Lucas Miller hit an
RBI single up the middle to score him.

The Mounties finished with just four hits - including singles by Dakota Davis, Tanner Hill, Jon Mason and Miller.

Marty
Ruiz said the Mounties' defense was just as key as Joe Ruiz' pitching -
especially with a key first-inning play by third-baseman Brodie England.

"They
had a hard-hit ground ball down the third-base line. England
back-handed it and got the guy out. You have to have plays like that to
have a no-hitter happen," Marty Ruiz said. "Miller was strong at
shortstop. He made several plays. Closer to the end, they all stepped
up a little bit."

Southmont next plays at 6 p.m. Thursday at Lebanon.