Bauer tosses Blue Ridge's 2nd no-hitter

Trevor Bauer walked 6 but struck out 12, gave up 1 run but not hits as Blue Ridge defeated Hopatcong, 5-1 at home on Thursday night for the second no-hitter in DMBL this season, only weeks after the first.

It's the 19th complete game no-hitter and 26th overall in DMBL history. Both of this year's no-hitters came at the expense of the Floating Fish. Dinelson Lamet of Poovey Farms did it just a few weeks ago.

It's the second no-hitter in Blue Ridge history along with a 2014 gem by a Jon Lester against Livingston. The Bombers now join San Francisco, Vancouver, Hillsborough, Hopatcong and Las Vegas (defunct) as the only franchises with at least two (SF has three). Hopatcong becomes the second team to be no-hit three times in its history, along with Hillsborough.

Bauer lost his bid for a perfect game at the start, walking leadoff hitter Cavan Biggio. Biggio stole 2nd and Dominic Smith walked before both advanced on a Yoshi Tsutsugo groundout to short. Another groundout to short from Josh Harrison scored Biggio, giving the Floating Fish a 1-0 lead without the benefit of a hit. Paul DeJong struck out to end the inning.

The Bombers struck back in the bottom of the 1st. Kolten Wong reached on an infield single and Ke'Bryan Hayes walked. Hopatcong start Kyle Cody got the next two batters but then yielded singles to Rowdy Tellez and Max Stassi and a double to Brandon Lowe to give Blue Ridge a 3-1 advantage.

Bauer breezed through the 2nd and 3rd innings. A one-out walk to Harrison in the 4th was erased on a double play by DeJong. Bauer continued a quiet 5th and 6th when no-hitter buzz started to build. He walked Tsutsugo to start the 7th and plunked Harrison. He got out of it with strikeouts of DeJong and Luis Robert, with Andrew McCutcheon's grounder to short forcing Harrison at 2nd to end the inning.

Bauer struck out the side in the 8th while also issuing one walk and his 6th and final base on balls, to Tsutsugo, led off the 9th but Harrison grounded into 1-4-3 double play to erase him. The no-hitter was secured when DeJong popped out to short to end the game.

The 30-year-old Bauer logged a season-high 134 pitches, only 76 of which went for strikes (.567). He finished with 12 strikeouts but 6 walks. Bauer improved to 15-3, matching a career high in wins, and lowered his ERA to 2.69, good for 5th in the league, behind Arkansas rookie Tony Gonsolin (2.38) and ahead of teammates Brad Keller (2.75) and Shane Bieber (2.78). His 229 strikeouts and 0.96 WHIP are both good for 4th in the league. He trails only Vancouver's Aaron Nola (22), with 20 quality starts.

The win coupled with Philly's loss put the Bombers (72-46) 1/2 game ahead of the Green Rage in the Jeter Division, good for the No. 4 seed currently, while dropping Philly (72-47) to the 6th seed as a wild card.

Bauer's name has bounced around the DMBL for almost a decade thanks to his prospect status but he finally became eligible in 2015.  The Newark Sugar Bears selected him as an ineligible prospect in the 4th round of the 2012 draft and even protected in 2013. A year later, he was drafted by Durham (which eventually morphed into Tucson) in the supplemental 7th round (essentially the 23rd round).

When Bauer finally earned his DMBL eligibility, Blue Ridge drafted him in the 3rd round in 2015, 41st overall. That year, he went 5-9 with a 5.82 ERA in 27 starts. It wasn't good enough to be protected because Philly took him in 2016 with the 1st pick of the 16th round. That year, he bounce between Philly and Blue Ridge, which claimed him off waivers from Philly, but never saw game action.

The California native struggled through two seasons in Blue Ridge, going a combined 19-25 in 66 starts and a middling ERA near 6.00 across 2017 and 2018 but still managed to show promise.

Ahead of the 2019 draft, Blue Ridge dealt Bauer and 3B Eugenio Suarez to Philly for Jose Ramirez and a 3rd rounder in 2020 (which the Bombers used to draft 2B Adam Frazier). The change of scenery did wonders for Bauer, who logged career highs across the board, going 15-10 with a 3.62 ERA for Philly, striking out 273 in 216.3 IP.

Blue Ridge continued its love affair with Bauer, selecting him in the 2nd round (28th overall) of the 2020 draft (after Marietta took SP Yu Darvish at No. 27 and ahead of OF Kyle Tucker, an ineligible prospect by Allentown at No. 29). That year, he lost a career-high 16 games (8-16) despite a 4.88 ERA but logged a respectable 195.7 IP with 211 strikeouts. He's turned it around this season with what looks to be a career year.