Middle Creek’s Wallace no-hits Green Hope softball
You’ll have to excuse Devin Wallace for losing count. She’s thrown too many career no-hitters to successfully keep track.
Wallace added another one on Thursday, firing a six-inning no-hitter against visiting Green Hope during a 10-0 Southwest Wake Athletic Conference softball victory.
The senior Wallace was just one hit batsmen away from a perfect game, striking out 13 batters and forcing five groundouts.
“Everything was working and I attacked the hitters by moving inside and outside and kept them guessing,” said Wallace, who also had a pair of hits and two RBIs at the plate.
Wallace plunked Green Hope’s Gail McColgan with a pitch in the second inning for the Falcons’ lone base runner of the night. She then retired the final 13 batters of the game to secure her first no-hitter of the season for the Mustangs (7-2, 6-1 SWAC). Green Hope fell to 4-6 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
Wallace had plenty of help though. Eight different Mustangs collected a hit and Middle Creek put the leadoff batter on base in all six innings.
“If we could do that every game we’d be happy and we could win a lot of ball games that way,” Middle Creek coach Robbie Wray said. “We have to score runs. If (Wallace) shuts them out but we don’t score it doesn’t matter. And this crowd is really working on hitting the ball and trying to score some runs for us.”
Middle Creek did most of its damage during a five-run second inning as Wallace stroked a two-run double and Gianna Gravius and Sam Kahn added RBI hits.
Turning point
The Mustangs plated a run in the first inning but then exploded in the second with four hits, a walk and a dropped third strike by the Falcons that scored another run and led to a 6-0 lead after two frames.
Three to know
Madison Clifford, Green Hope: The junior relieved Falcons starting pitcher Katelyn Ellard in the second inning. After helping Green Hope escape the big inning, Clifford limited Middle Creek to two runs over the next three innings.
Lily Morris, Middle Creek: The second basemen went 2-for-3 at the plate and saved the no-hitter with a backhand stop of a hard-hit grounder in the sixth.
Gianna Gravius, Middle Creek: The sophomore had an RBI single and drove in a second run on a sacrifice fly while also scoring twice herself.
By the numbers
9: Different Mustangs to score a run.
11: Consecutive wins by Middle Creek over Green Hope, dating back to 2011.
5: Consecutive shutouts by the Mustangs over the Falcons.
20: Strikeouts in the game as Green Hope pitchers Ellard, Clifford and Savannah Harrison combined for seven of their own.
This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Middle Creek’s Wallace no-hits Green Hope softball."