Lakers AA baseball: Eaves hurls no-hitter
WHITEFISH — Right-handed pitcher Dillon Eaves will never forget this weekend.
“Between graduation (Friday night) and today’s game, this is one I will treasure for awhile,” he said of his Sunday no-hitter for the Kalispell Lakers AA American Legion baseball team at Memorial Field.
“All four pitches were working today. I was able to hit every spot. Every thing was working and I was very efficient.”
Eaves struck out 14 Glacier Twins A batters over the course of nine innings in the 7-0 nonconference victory.
He just missed out on a perfect game when Glacier’s Brandon Maassen struck out, but reached first on an error by catcher Adam Frandsen. Eaves picked off Maassen two pitches later.
Eaves faced the minimum of 27 batters.
He fanned two batters in four innings and struck out the side in the eighth.
The no-hitter came almost three years to the date Kalispell’s Joe Pistorese threw the first nine-inning perfect game in American Legion baseball history.
Pistorese was in the stands Sunday.
“Dillon has been consistent for us all year,” Lakers coach Ryan Malmin said.
“Aside from having great command of his pitches, he’s a great competitor.”
The Lakers did all of their scoring in two innings — three runs in the first and four in the fourth.
Eaves helped his cause, going 1 for 4 and driving in a run. He had one of the Lakers’ three doubles.
“After the first five innings, he (Malmin) kept asking me if I was OK,” Eaves said.
“In the sixth inning, he saw what was developing and let me go. He let me have my day.”
Eaves said he struggled out of the gate, throwing three straight balls to Glacier’s leadoff hitter.
“I told myself to relax,” he said.
The victory pushed his mound record to 5-1. The Lakers are now 14-9.
Eaves has been accepted academically at Arizona State University. He hopes to walk on with the Sun Devils baseball team.
“Hopefully today’s outing does a little bit,” he said of getting ASU’s coaching staff to take notice.
Kalispell is back in action Wednesday with a AA league outing at the Missoula Mavericks. The single game starts at 7 p.m.
The Twins play the Lakers A on Wednesday in Kalispell. The single game begins at 6:30 p.m.
Kalispell 300 400 000 — 7 7 1
Glacier 000 000 000 — 0 0 3
Dillon Eaves and Adam Frandsen: Hugh Ramlow, Austin Robbins (6) and Zac Darling. W — Eaves. L — Ramlow.
KALISPELL — Chris Combs 1-3, Charlie Obermiller 2-5, Eaves 1-4, Sean O’Connell 0-3, Frandsen 1-3, Dillon Matteson 0-2, Chris Sibley 0-1, Jake Barstow 1-3, Robert Reaser 0-2, Hank McLeod 0-4, Justin Wallace 1-4.
GLACIER — Jayce Fagerland 0-3, Shane Marcial 0-3, Jake Slaybaugh 0-3, Peter Seymor 0-3, Colton Gove 0-2, Jason Newbury 0-1, Kyler Howke 0-3, Brandon Maassen 0-3, Zac Darling 0-3, Robert Simmons 0-3.
2B—Obermiller, Eaves, Combs; RBIs—Obermiller, Eaves, Frandsen (2), Matteson, Barstow.