POTOMAC PARK — Northern starter Luke Ross was two walks shy of a perfect game, throwing a no-hitter in a 6-0 victory over Fort Hill on Tuesday at Jim Holler Field.
“Great effort by Luke Ross, no-hitter,” Northern head coach Phil Carr said. “We always talk about that a pitcher’s job isn’t always to strike out. Who cares how many you strike out, it’s all about pitch placement. He was able to work in and out and get his off speed working good.”
Ross only needed 82 pitches to record 21 outs, recording four strikeouts for the No. 4 Huskies (2-0 Western Maryland Athletic Conference).
“I didn’t really think about it till the fifth inning,” Ross said. “Started to kick in a little bit, but didn’t wanna say anything, bad luck and jinx it.”
For the Sentinels (2-1 WestMAC), the story of the game was the defensive miscues.
Fort Hill committed eight errors with two leading to runs.
Two others put runners on base who later scored.
“We had 21 hits in the first two games, today, bats just weren’t active,” Fort Hill head coach Tanner Brode said. “Issues in the field behind our pitchers, both pitchers held their guys to under four hits. I think every time we did that last year we were undefeated.”
So far, Northern’s offense is most effective in the middle innings.
In Saturday’s 14-8 win over No. 2 Allegany, the Huskies scored four runs in the fourth and seven in the fifth.
On Tuesday, Northern scored two in the fourth and three in the fifth.
After an RBI double from Jacob Chambers in the first inning, Cole Folk doubled to left in the fourth.
“We preach that all the time, keep pressuring the other team,” Carr said. “When we get opportunities to steal bases and do whatever, we need to do that. I think anytime you can put pressure on the other team’s defense it helps you. It gets them out of place and creates opportunity for the hitters.”
The next four runs were scored off two errors, a groundout from Devin McKenzie and a Wally Brands RBI single to center.
“We got a young team, I think we only have four returning starters,” Brode said of the errors. “Kinda getting where we were last year is gonna take some time and maturing to do. Having said that, we are pretty mature, but I still think there’s some growing there.”
Colt Resh and Carson Bender pitched for the Sentinels, both finishing with two hits and one earned run.
Resh walked two and struck out four while Bender recorded one strikeout and no walks.
Tuesday’s performance marked the second career no-hitter for Ross after blanking Albert Gallatin his freshman year.
“That’s pretty special, a lot of things have to happen when you throw a no-hitter,” Carr said of Ross having two no-hitters. “You gotta have a great defense, you gotta have a great day of guys scoring runs for you.”
The Huskies play at Hancock on Wednesday followed by Albert Gallatin on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
The Sentinels head to Allegany (2-1) on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
“They have three solid pitching options, so we’re not sure who we’ll face,” Brode said. “All of those guys have velocity, so that’s gonna be a challenge. Coach (Ben) Brauer and myself in batting practice, we can’t throw in the upper 80s like the three guys from Allegany.”