Musgrove, Cervenka combine on no-hitter

Hillsborough rookies Joe Musgrove and Hunter Cervenka combined to no-hit Sardine City, 5-0, on Wednesday night. It's the second no-hitter in franchise history and the first in the DMBL since 2015.

It's the 18th no-hitter, and 6th combined no-hitter, in league history. The last no-hitter was in September 2015 when San Francisco's Scott Kazmir tossed the league's third that season. It's the first combined no-hitter since Garrett Richards and Carlos Martinez did it in August 2015 -- also for Hillsborough.

A 4th-round pick in this year's draft (55th overall), Musgrove lasted 8 innings but after 118 pitches -- just 70 for strikes -- could not make it out for the 9th on an 85-degree night despite pleas from the home crowd. The left-handed Cervenka finished off the Straphangers, including pinch-hitters Addison Russell and Ichiro Suzuki, with a 1-2-3 9th inning.

Musgrove was a bit wild with a .593 strike percentage actually not to up par with the .621 on the season. He walked 4 and struck out 5 to even his record at 4-4 in 12 starts while lowering his ERA to 4.46. The 24-year-old has been holding down the No. 4 spot in the Hillsborough rotation and has a team-best 1.14 WHIP. His Game Score of 88 tied for the fifth-best in the DMBL this season.

The no-hitter is a bright spot in what's been a tough first half for Hillsborough, which improved to 23-36, 8 games back of Sardine City (32-29) in the basement of the Piazza division.

Musgrove opened the game by walking LF Christian Yelich then retired 11 in a row, including five consecutive groundball outs after the first inning. He issued a two-out walk to 2B Ryan Schimpf in the 4th. The 5th inning opened with an error by SS Jonathan Villar but C Tyler Flowers was erased by a 1B Eric Hosmer double play grounder to third. Musgrove walked RF Stephen Piscotty before ending the 5th.

A one-out walk to 3B Evan Longoria in the 7th, followed by a groundout by Flowers, got a man to second base but that was the farthest a Straphanger got on the bases.

The Hit Men scored single runs in the 4th and 5th before stringing together a double, a triple and a pair of singles to plate 3 runs in the 7th. Corey Kluber took the loss, yielding 5 runs, 4 earned, in 5 2/3 innings, and fell to 5-4.