There was some light rain in the area on Wednesday morning but not enough to affect the 4:15 ballgame at McCaskey. At game-time it was mostly cloudy with a breeze from right to left and temperatures right around sixty degrees, the lights were on from the outset thanks to the overcast conditions. Solanco visited from SOuthern LANcaster COunty (the school is in Quarryville, not far from where Jenny and her mother live) for a league crossover game and on this day it was all JPM from the word Go. In the first inning the Red Tornado put together a three-spot, RayJay Marmolejos and Alex Vine began it with back-to-back singles and Alex Ruiz was hit by the pitch to load the bases. Starting pitcher Xavian Padilla drew a walk to force RayJay home with the first run, two batters later Landis Fluck (pronounced "fluke") walked to score Vine with run #2. Ruiz later scored on A.J. De Los Santos sac fly making it 3-0. Yordy Beltre started the second inning with a base hit, Marmolejos and Vine each walked to load the bases. A sac fly from Ruiz scored Beltre, Padilla followed with an RBI hit scoring RayJay to extend the edge to 5-0. In the fourth Padilla walked, Eliam Santana doubled and Fluck was hit by the pitch to load the bases once again. Back-to-back walks to A.J. and Kolby Esh forced in runs #6 and #7, RayJay's two-run double put JPM up 9-0. In the bottom of the sixth the club "walked it off" via the mercy rule when De Los Santos walked and advanced to third on a base hit by Beltre, the relay throw to third was wild allowing A.J. to score the game-ending run. The final score was 10-0 but that was only half the story, lost in the celebration was the fact that Xavian Padilla had very quietly pitched a no-hit no-run game. Over the six innings he worked Xavi struck out two batters and allowed only six baserunners: four reached on fielding errors, another on a fielders choice and another on the only walk he allowed. I don't know the last time a McCaskey pitcher threw a no-hitter (and it still counts even though it was curtailed by the mercy rule) but it's something to be very proud of because it's not something you see every day. The boys are back home on Saturday the 17th straight-up at noon versus Harrisburg. On Wednesday evening Jenny returned home from a two-day baby-sitting stint at her friend's house, we had lunch together on Thursday for the first time in six days, Take care, thanks for reading.
