Johnson's no-hitter sends Unatego/Franklin to first sectional title

May 24—In perhaps the biggest game of his life, Braeden Johnson came through on the mound as he so often has for the Unatego/Franklin baseball team throughout the last few years.

Johnson tossed a no-hitter in the Section IV Class C Championship Game on Friday, striking out 12 and leading U/F to its first ever Section IV title with a 4-0 win over Trumansburg at Union-Endicott.

"I pitched on Monday," Johnson said. "Luckily we got out of that game pretty quick so I wasn't under pressure of throwing too many pitches earlier in the week, so I came out here and did what I like to do, throw strikes"

"He's been with me since he was a freshman and he's thrown quite a few no-hitters," U/F coach Frank Microni said of Johnson. "I'm not trying to brag; he is a genuine, humble person who works at what he loves to do and he's probably one of the greatest baseball players I've coached.

"He's done a lot of things for the school, set records at the school. He works at it and he doesn't brag. You wouldn't know it if he came into a room. He just works at it. He's going to Cornell and hopefully he does really well there too. Proud of everybody, proud of them all."

Johnson helped himself at the plate with two hits and an RBI.

Braeden's brother, Xander, led the offense with two doubles, a single, two RBI and two runs scored in the win.

Neither offense was able to get anything going until the third inning when Jake Kingsbury singled and came around to score on a double to the left field fence from Xander Johnson to take a 1-0 lead.

"That was huge. When I'm standing in the on deck circle and I see him hit it over the left fielder's head, I'm like, man, that's my brother," Braeden said of being able to not only play with his brother but watch him give the team the lead in a sectional final.

"For us offensively, he has to produce," Microni said of Xander. "Jake Kingsbury is your quintessential leadoff hitter; he's usually going to find a way to get on. Our first run, he was stealing and Xander fell into one off the wall. That's huge, for us to get on top like that. For us to be able to set the tone and get that run knowing who we have on the mound, that just helps us build momentum. We did that all week. Those two guys, when they're cooking, get Jake on the basepaths, get him running around and having Xander run into some balls."

In the fifth inning, Xander once again hit an RBI double and came around to score on a single from Braeden, extending the lead to 3-0.

Braeden continued to shut down the Trumansburg offense into the late innings and in the top of the seventh, Xander walked, stole a base and came around to score to make it 4-0 U/F with three outs to go.

Chase Birdsall made a nice play in centerfield for the first out before Braeden recorded his 11th strikeout for the second out.

His message to himself during the final at-bat was simple.

"Throw a fastball right down the middle and strike him out," Johnson said.

That's exactly what he did and as a result added yet another accomplishment to go down in the U/F and Section IV record books.

With the win, U/F now gets a chance to continue their run in the state tournament with the date and opponent to be determined.

"Braeden will be on the hill, and we'll go scratch out some runs and try to win another game," Microni said. "I'm just excited to have another week of practice. I like going to practice with these guys, it's fun. I don't want that to end and I think these guys are right there, they just don't want it to end yet, because we've had a good run these last couple of weeks."

Unatego/Franklin 4, Trumansburg 0

U/F ... 001 020 1 — 4 8 1

T ... 000 000 0 — 0 0 0

U/F: Braeden Johnson (W) and Xander Johnson

T: Garrett Potter (L), Aidan Clarke-Cabezas (6) and Ozzie Vogel-Moore

2B: Xander Johnson 2 (U/F)