Hunter Greene no-hits Empire City

Hunter Greene retired 20 straight batters between issuing two walks en route to throwing Green Lake's first no-hitter, the second in DMBL this season.

The Gators provided more than enough offense in a 13-0 shellacking of the Trojans at Empire City's American Family Field on Tuesday night. 

Greene issued a two-out walk in the 1st to Christian Walker and then proceeded set down 20 straight batters. Another one-out walk, this time time in the 8th to Justin Turner, broke the streak but was erased on a double play from pinch-hitter Mauricio Dubon. Greene plunked Jarred Kelenic to start the 9th but stayed in the ballgame, striking out Gunnar Henderson and Ketel Marte -- his only back-to-back punchouts on the evening -- to complete the no-no.

Greene finished with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks along with the one hit batsman. Of his 108 pitches, 69 went strikes (.638).

The Gators broke open the game in the 2nd inning. Wilyer Abreu's leadoff homer was the first of five consecutive hits from the bottom of the order, culminating with a bases clearing triple by Blake Perkins to make it 4-0 before Erick Fedde finally struck out Jackson Chourio for the first out. Green Lake would bat around in the inning, making it 6-0. They added a Marcus Semien homer in the 3rd to make it 7-0 and tacked on 3 more runs in the 4th.

Fedde stayed on through the 4th for Empire City, taking one for the team. He surrendered 10 runs on 14 hits with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk. John Schreiber kept the Gators quiet for 2 innings before they butchered Kirby Yates for another 3 runs in the in the 8th.

It's the 1st no-hitter in franchise history for Green Lake, which joined the league in 2023 after purchasing the Loudon Lollygaggers, and the 34th no-hitter in DMBL history. Of the 34, 10 have been combined no-hitters, including the last one, which came in May. Merrill Creek's Ronel Blanco and two relievers (Jason Adam and Tayler Scott) combined to no-hit Allentown.

A two-time first-round pick (5th overall in 2023 by Erie, then 19th overall in 2024), Greene, 25, improved to 7-5 on the season with the win and lowered his ERA to 3.13 and WHIP to 1.05 (8th in the DMBL). The outing helped him take the league lead in batting average against (.184) and H/9 (5.9), edging past teammate Spencer Schwellenbach (1.86 and 6.1), remaining a strong candidates for the Ben McDonald Award, honoring the league's top pitcher.

With the win, Green Lake improved to 52-41 (.559) and remain in the hunt for the Hobbs Division crown or at least a wild card in their first years in serious playoff contention thanks to a league-best pitching staff. (2.98 ERA, 1.08 WHIP).