Saxonburg feels sting

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

June 22, 2005 Last Updated: June 22, 2005 03:12 PM Amateur

Beeman's no hitter stuns team

BUTLER TWP - Those who watch and play baseball should expect the unexpected.

But nobody was expecting this.

Don Beeman, 16, a first-year American Legion player, pitched a no-hitter at previously unbeaten Saxonburg as Butler City scored a 1-0 victory Tuesday evening at Butler County Community College.

Saxonburg had scored 126 runs in its first 11 games - an average of 11.4 per contest. Butler City won for only the second time in 11 games this season.

"Yeah, it is," Butler City coach Jerome Piroch admitted when asked if the win was one of the more improbable ones in recent years. "But the law of averages didn't catch up to anybody here. We were good enough to win this game."

They were good enough to win it with only nine players. Piroch had no bench players or assistant coaches Tuesday.

Butler City began the season with a 13-player roster, but one player quit and a few others rarely come to games.

"These are the nine guys who always come," Piroch said. "They love to play baseball. If I told them we had a game in Louisiana tomorrow, they'd find a way to get there."

Seven of the nine are first-year Legion players.

Butler City scored the game's only run in the second inning. With two outs, Phil Waller walked and stole second. He went to third on an errant pickoff attempt.

Waller scored when Beeman's ground ball to third was mishandled.

Butler City's offense consisted of five singles against losing pitcher Kevin Bacon, but Beeman took care of the rest.

Saxonburg had six base runners. Joel Berger reached on an infield error in the third. Beeman walked the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, but struck out Bacon and Josh Uncapher to escape any damage.

"I just had to settle down and get into the routine I was into before," Beeman said. "I felt good out there."

With two outs in the seventh, Beeman walked Uncapher on four pitches. He got two strikes on Justin Thompson, who fouled off a pair of pitches before popping up in front of the plate.

Beeman and catcher Benjamin Cress converged on the ball, but it popped out of Cress' glove.

"There was a lot of spin on that ball," Piroch said. "It wasn't an easy play."

"I figured one of us would catch it," Beeman said. "When we didn't … I had to go back to the mound and take care of business."

That he did, getting Aaron Shaw to fly out to center field to end the contest.

Beeman struck out six in winning a game that took barely 90 minutes to play.

"He had us off balance. That's why we were reaching for the ball and hitting a lot of fly balls," Saxonburg coach Steve Hall said. "And we struck out more tonight than we had been."

Saxonburg had averaged less than three strikeouts per game before Tuesday.

"Between the strikeouts and the fly balls, we didn't put any pressure on their defense," Hall said. "We didn't make their defense work."

Bacon kept his team in the game by repeatedly pitching out of trouble. Butler City stranded two runners in the first, second, third and sixth innings.

"I kept hoping we would score a couple more so I could pitch with a cushion, but it never happened," Beeman said. "You're a little nervous pitching with a one-run lead."

The win was Beeman's first of the season. He turns 17 next month and will be a senior at Butler this fall, but has not played high school baseball since his freshman year.

He had never pitched a no-hitter at any level of baseball.

"I've never even came close to one," Beeman said. "One of my teammates told me I had a no-hitter going after the third inning and I just laughed."

Piroch wasn't totally surprised by what he saw Tuesday.

"Don's a good pitcher," he said. "He'll be pitching in the (Legion) all-star game Sunday and there's a reason for that."

Saxonburg 000 000 0 - 0 0 4

Butler City 010 000 x - 1 5 2

WP:

Don Beeman (7 IP) 6 strikeouts, 4 walks.

LP:

Kevin Bacon (6 IP) 4 strikeouts, 3 walks

Saxonburg (11-1):

No hits