Menu
Miller throws no-hitter for 'Jays
EAST PRAIRIE -- The Charleston Bluejays did not let the cold weather stifle their hot bats or their pitching arms on Friday afternoon, as they handed their rival the East Prairie Eagles a 15-2 defeat on a complete game no-hitter by James Miller in the first game of a double-header.
"I'm pleased," Bluejays head coach Michael Minner said. "We're starting to swing the bats a little bit better. We showed some signs of life today. Defensively after we got through that first inning I felt like we played pretty decent."
Miller also found his stroke going five innings on the mound not allowing a hit for the Bluejays. Miller struck out five batters and walked two. East Prairie's runs were scored by the two walks followed by an error on the Charleston defense in the first inning.
"This was Miller's first outing," Minner said. "He stepped out and was a little wild early but he found the zone and had good
East Prairie's David Pinzon slides into third while Charleston's Jamie Barber tries to stop the ball.
command of his curve ball and once we got going he did a real good job."
Charleston compiled 11 hits on the day including three home runs by three different players. Matt Medlock, James Miller and Eric Rowling all went yard for the Bluejays. The right handed Miller hit an opposite field solo-shot to give Charleston the go-ahead run in the top of the second inning with a 3-2 lead. Rowling knocked a 3-run home run to left to make it a 12-2 ball game and a 2-run home run by Medlock over the center field wall extended it to a 14-2 lead.
Jarryd Smith knocked a triple to left-center field for his only hit of the day, while Jamie Barber went 2-4 with both hits being doubles.
It's not very typical that on a cold, windy day that many baseballs are hit very far because they don't fly as well in the air, but that did not seem to bother any of the Bluejays' bats.
"I guess you can say it's both ways," Minner said. "It's cold so you don't want to hit in this but with the wind blowing like it is we got a few balls up in the stream and we hit a few home runs. I guess that's good for confidence maybe but I would just assume see some line-drives. But, I'm glad for the kids, that's good for them."
Both teams put a two-spot on the board in the first inning. Charleston started to capitalize on some Eagle fielding errors and some errand throws during the second inning to score four runs and make it a 6-2 game.
"We didn't field the ball," Eagles head coach Jason Aycock said. "Just too many errors, passed balls and just too many mistakes. Charleston's got a good team they came ready to play and they made us make plays and we didn't make them. We just gave them way too many runs."
The third inning is when the Bluejays started to pound out the runs with their hitting. They had six hits in their half of the third to plate eight runs across. The losing pitcher for the Eagles, Whybark, went three innings for the Eagles giving up 14 runs on nine hits and two walks.
"Defense behind him didn't help him a lot," Aycock said about his pitcher. "He wasn't on his game. He got off to a rough start in the first inning and walked two or three guys and that's typically not him. Normally, he throws a lot of strikes and today wasn't his best game."
The Bluejays will try and continue their hot hitting when they travel to Meridian, Ill. on Monday, while East Prairie will travel back home to take on the Eagles of NMCC on Thursday.
Charleston 248 10x x -- 15 East Prairie 200 00x x -- 2 WP -- James Miller; LP -- T. Whybark. 2B -- Jamie Barber (2) (C); 3B -- Jarryd Smith (C); HR -- Matt Medlock (C), Miller (C), Eric Rowling (C). Multiple Hitters -- Paul Johnson, Medlock, Barber.