A mind-dizzying array of record-breaking and historic Chillicothe Mudcats pitching and hitting performances in their 20-1 decimation of the visiting Joplin Outlaws lost its crown jewel at nearly the last moment Friday night.
Relying mostly on pinpoint control of an overpowering fastball, Chillicothe right-handed pitcher Mark Robinette threw what was being considered no-hit ball for 8-1/3 innings before a Kelton Rule double denied the versatile Northeast Texas Community College and Tulsa, Okla., player an indelible place in Mudcats history.
While he didn't quite get a summer-league no-no to go with one he threw for Northeast Texas this spring, Robinette (1-1) did ink himself into Mudcats pitching annals by striking out a stunning 17 Outlaws before being lifted after his 122nd pitch, a 1-2 inside fastball, smacked into right-center for a clean hit by Rule with one out in the ninth.
While Robinette didn't carve his name into team history as the first hurler to fire a nine-inning no-hitter – back in 2003, Wes Todd and Matt Hancock combined on a four-inning no-hitter in a scheduled seven-inning, non-MINK League game cut short by rain, his overwhelming hill work was only a portion of one of the most-remarkable nights in the Chillicothe team's nine-year history.
In addition to Robinette eclipsing Mike Felix's five-year-old (almost to the day) mark for strikeouts in a game (15), Friday's game saw the Fish break their team record for runs in a game (18), set initially in June 2004 and equaled for the first time since then only six days earlier in an 18-7 victory over Strike Zone of Omaha.
To surpass the former standard, Chillicothe had to score six two-out runs in the bottom of the eighth. Will Maxwell's two-run double to left-center field tied the record and Crispin Tarango's two-run single past the second baseman produced his third and fourth runs batted in of the night to top the old mark.
On top of that, Mudcats right fielder Josh McDorman, who started the season with 17 hitless official at-bats, went four for four before being lifted in the seventh inning with his team up 13-1. Having hit safely in his last two at-bats the night before against Joplin, the Niceville, Fla., product ended the night owning hits in each of his last six at-bats.
That tied the team mark initially established by original Fish Josh Mayo in the first two weeks of their inaugural 2002 season and since matched five times (by Seth Moulton, Felix, Jared Keel, Mitchell Haynes, and Darian Sandford). McDorman should have a chance to break the record in Saturday afternoon's game at Sedalia.
And that wasn't all.
Chillicothe center fielder Casey Solem came up with a two-run double over the first base bag with two outs in the sixth inning to cap that six-run outburst and extend his hitting streak to 15 games. Hitless in four prior trips to the plate in the game, the team's leadoff hitter tied Matty Johnson's 2008 string for the second-longest hitting skein in Fish history. Mayo – the team's top player its first two years, also owns that record, going 20 games in a row with a hit in 2003.
By going one for five in the game – he was replaced by a pinch runner following his double, Solem saw his batting average slip below .400 to .394.
So prolific was that handful of Chillicothe performances that Tarango's (four RBIs, three hits, two doubles, two runs scored) and Tyson Parks' (two hits, three RBIs) games were passe, even though the hot-hitting Tarango doubled his season RBIs total and kept his average climbing to .329 and slump-emerging Parks' team-leading run production total moved to 18 driven in.
Also obscured in the blizzard of hits and runs was reserve infielder Tyler Lloyd's two hits and three RBIs after replacing an injured Parker Hipp in the fourth inning. Hipp appeared to pull a muscle in his left leg or a groin muscle beating out an infield hit in the fourth.
Other than that, it was a ho-hum night – unless you consider it noteworthy that the Mudcats' Friday win, coupled with Excelsior Springs' sweep of a doubleheader with season-long MINK North Division leader St. Joseph, moved them (pending the outcome of the second game of the Clarinda-Ozark doubleheader) into first place in the North for the first time this season.
Chillicothe moved ahead of St. Joe's Mustangs in the division standings with a 15-10 record, while the sinking Ponies stumbled to 17-13. Oft-overlooked league newcomer Excelsior Springs advanced to 15-11 and into a tie with St. Joseph.
Clarinda won the first game of its twinbill with the Generals to also stand 15-10, but the second game could not be completed, due to fog. That left the A's tied with the Fish and the Mustangs and Cougars a half-game back.
After losing at Sedalia Saturday while Clarinda was prevailing at Joplin to take a 1-game lead and St. Joseph was beating Excelsior Springs Saturday night after losing to Diamond Spirit of Omaha Saturday afternoon, Chillicothe headed into a scheduled Sunday night game tied with St. Joe in second with Excelsior Springs a game back of that pair.
As of the time of this update (Sunday 3:45 p.m.), the Mudcats appeared likely to have a dry-enough home field to face tormentor Excelsior Springs before facing Clarinda four times over the next four days – Monday and Thursday in Iowa and twice at home Tuesday.
Had Robinette completed the no-hitter Friday, some might have disputed its authenticity.
In keeping with baseball tradition that a first hit in the late innings of a game in which a pitcher has a potential no-hitter going be an unquestioned hit, a difficult play with two outs in the top of the eighth inning was ruled an error.
Mudcats shortstop Louie Templeton ranged far to his left to make a diving stab of Brenden Gentry's two-out grounder. Scrambling to his feet, pivoting, and throwing off-balance and sidearm against his momentum, the infielder's valiant peg to first short-hopped past Parks just as Gentry was crossing the bag. Since Parks didn't glove the throw, no umpire's call on what would have been a bang-bang play was required.
Considering the ground Templeton covered to get to the ball and the type of throw attempted, the scorer's ruling almost certainly would have been a hit immediately, had it not been a pending no-hitter situation. In fact, Robinette admitted he immediately thought it had ended his chase of the "no-no."
While the Chillicothe coaching staff told one source it considered the ball a hit initially, a subsequent check with them learned that they were willing to let the official scorer's "error" ruling stand, rather than change the play to a hit once it was superfluous to a no-hit bid.
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A mind-dizzying array of record-breaking and historic Chillicothe Mudcats pitching and hitting performances in their 20-1 decimation of the visiting Joplin Outlaws lost its crown jewel at nearly the last moment Friday night.
Relying mostly on pinpoint control of an overpowering fastball, Chillicothe right-handed pitcher Mark Robinette threw what was being considered no-hit ball for 8-1/3 innings before a Kelton Rule double denied the versatile Northeast Texas Community College and Tulsa, Okla., player an indelible place in Mudcats history.
While he didn't quite get a summer-league no-no to go with one he threw for Northeast Texas this spring, Robinette (1-1) did ink himself into Mudcats pitching annals by striking out a stunning 17 Outlaws before being lifted after his 122nd pitch, a 1-2 inside fastball, smacked into right-center for a clean hit by Rule with one out in the ninth.
While Robinette didn't carve his name into team history as the first hurler to fire a nine-inning no-hitter – back in 2003, Wes Todd and Matt Hancock combined on a four-inning no-hitter in a scheduled seven-inning, non-MINK League game cut short by rain, his overwhelming hill work was only a portion of one of the most-remarkable nights in the Chillicothe team's nine-year history.
In addition to Robinette eclipsing Mike Felix's five-year-old (almost to the day) mark for strikeouts in a game (15), Friday's game saw the Fish break their team record for runs in a game (18), set initially in June 2004 and equaled for the first time since then only six days earlier in an 18-7 victory over Strike Zone of Omaha.
To surpass the former standard, Chillicothe had to score six two-out runs in the bottom of the eighth. Will Maxwell's two-run double to left-center field tied the record and Crispin Tarango's two-run single past the second baseman produced his third and fourth runs batted in of the night to top the old mark.
On top of that, Mudcats right fielder Josh McDorman, who started the season with 17 hitless official at-bats, went four for four before being lifted in the seventh inning with his team up 13-1. Having hit safely in his last two at-bats the night before against Joplin, the Niceville, Fla., product ended the night owning hits in each of his last six at-bats.
That tied the team mark initially established by original Fish Josh Mayo in the first two weeks of their inaugural 2002 season and since matched five times (by Seth Moulton, Felix, Jared Keel, Mitchell Haynes, and Darian Sandford). McDorman should have a chance to break the record in Saturday afternoon's game at Sedalia.
And that wasn't all.
Chillicothe center fielder Casey Solem came up with a two-run double over the first base bag with two outs in the sixth inning to cap that six-run outburst and extend his hitting streak to 15 games. Hitless in four prior trips to the plate in the game, the team's leadoff hitter tied Matty Johnson's 2008 string for the second-longest hitting skein in Fish history. Mayo – the team's top player its first two years, also owns that record, going 20 games in a row with a hit in 2003.
By going one for five in the game – he was replaced by a pinch runner following his double, Solem saw his batting average slip below .400 to .394.
So prolific was that handful of Chillicothe performances that Tarango's (four RBIs, three hits, two doubles, two runs scored) and Tyson Parks' (two hits, three RBIs) games were passe, even though the hot-hitting Tarango doubled his season RBIs total and kept his average climbing to .329 and slump-emerging Parks' team-leading run production total moved to 18 driven in.
Also obscured in the blizzard of hits and runs was reserve infielder Tyler Lloyd's two hits and three RBIs after replacing an injured Parker Hipp in the fourth inning. Hipp appeared to pull a muscle in his left leg or a groin muscle beating out an infield hit in the fourth.
Other than that, it was a ho-hum night – unless you consider it noteworthy that the Mudcats' Friday win, coupled with Excelsior Springs' sweep of a doubleheader with season-long MINK North Division leader St. Joseph, moved them (pending the outcome of the second game of the Clarinda-Ozark doubleheader) into first place in the North for the first time this season.
Chillicothe moved ahead of St. Joe's Mustangs in the division standings with a 15-10 record, while the sinking Ponies stumbled to 17-13. Oft-overlooked league newcomer Excelsior Springs advanced to 15-11 and into a tie with St. Joseph.
Clarinda won the first game of its twinbill with the Generals to also stand 15-10, but the second game could not be completed, due to fog. That left the A's tied with the Fish and the Mustangs and Cougars a half-game back.
After losing at Sedalia Saturday while Clarinda was prevailing at Joplin to take a 1-game lead and St. Joseph was beating Excelsior Springs Saturday night after losing to Diamond Spirit of Omaha Saturday afternoon, Chillicothe headed into a scheduled Sunday night game tied with St. Joe in second with Excelsior Springs a game back of that pair.
As of the time of this update (Sunday 3:45 p.m.), the Mudcats appeared likely to have a dry-enough home field to face tormentor Excelsior Springs before facing Clarinda four times over the next four days – Monday and Thursday in Iowa and twice at home Tuesday.
Had Robinette completed the no-hitter Friday, some might have disputed its authenticity.
In keeping with baseball tradition that a first hit in the late innings of a game in which a pitcher has a potential no-hitter going be an unquestioned hit, a difficult play with two outs in the top of the eighth inning was ruled an error.
Mudcats shortstop Louie Templeton ranged far to his left to make a diving stab of Brenden Gentry's two-out grounder. Scrambling to his feet, pivoting, and throwing off-balance and sidearm against his momentum, the infielder's valiant peg to first short-hopped past Parks just as Gentry was crossing the bag. Since Parks didn't glove the throw, no umpire's call on what would have been a bang-bang play was required.
Considering the ground Templeton covered to get to the ball and the type of throw attempted, the scorer's ruling almost certainly would have been a hit immediately, had it not been a pending no-hitter situation. In fact, Robinette admitted he immediately thought it had ended his chase of the "no-no."
While the Chillicothe coaching staff told one source it considered the ball a hit initially, a subsequent check with them learned that they were willing to let the official scorer's "error" ruling stand, rather than change the play to a hit once it was superfluous to a no-hit bid.
