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College baseball team pulls off one of the strangest no-hitters you'll ever see

Zach Pereles
Six University of Virginia pitchers combined to no-hit William and Mary on Wednesday. (Matt Gentry /The Roanoke Times via AP)
Six University of Virginia pitchers combined to no-hit William and Mary on Wednesday. (Matt Gentry /The Roanoke Times via AP)

The University of Virginia used six pitchers to throw an 11-inning no-hitter Wednesday night, and the Cavaliers walked off against William and Mary, 4-3, in one of the wackiest games you could imagine.

Virginia’s sextet of pitchers gave up seven walks and threw three wild pitches, and the Cavaliers as a team committed four errors, but the hosts managed to escape thanks to a mix of their own late-inning heroics and the visitors’ late-inning mishaps.

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The Cavaliers built an early 2-0 lead and, behind starter Bobby Nicholson, took that lead into the sixth inning. Nicholson issued a couple of walks in the inning and was pulled after 5 1/3 innings of no-hit ball, giving way to Blake Rohm. Rohm threw a wild pitch to the first batter he saw, advancing the runners to second and third, and Patrick Ryan cut the lead in half with an RBI groundout. But Rohm then got Hunter Smith to fly out, keeping the lead and the no-hitter intact.

Grant Donahue took over in the seventh and immediately plunked the first batter he saw, Zach Pearson. Pearson moved to second on a groundout and then third on a wild pitch by Donahue. Matthew Trehub’s sac fly knotted things at two despite the Tribe still being hitless.

Things stayed knotted at two until the zany 11th inning. Bennett Sousa got Ryan to ground out and Smith to strike out for the first two outs of the inning. But Pearson reached on a throwing error from Virginia third baseman Justin Novak, then took second on a wild pitch and then third on a throwing error by Sousa. A throwing error from second baseman Andy Weber allowed Pearson to score, giving the Tribe its first lead of the day, 3-2.

It was short-lived joy for the visitors, though. Charlie Cody led off the bottom of the inning with a single off Tribe hurler Robert White, and then White hit Tanner Morris. After a sac bunt advanced the runners to second and third, White walked Brendan Rivoli to load the bases with one out. Novak then hit a chopper down the third base line, which Ryan threw low across the diamond, sending Cody and Morris home for an unbelievable victory for the Cavaliers.

The sextet of Nicholson, Rohm, Donahue, Riley Wilson, Mack Meyer and Sousa combined to throw the first no-hitter for the Cavaliers since Nathan Kirby, currently in the Brewers farm system, did so in 2014.

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