Schwellenbach follows up 20th win with no-hitter

Five days after becoming the DMBL's 1st 20-game winner in three years, and likely lone 20-game winner this year, Spencer Schwellenbach tightened his vise-like grip on the Ben McDonald Award, twirling Green Lake's 2nd no-hitter of the season.

Schwellenbach put on a show Wednesday night, striking out 11 and walking two in a 7-0 shutout at Merrill Creek. The Gators let him go for 116 pitches, 79 for strikes (.681). After a 51-minute rain delay in the top of the 1st, any suspense about a perfect game was gone after one out in the bottom of the inning when 3B Nolan Arenado misplayed Kyle Schwarber groundball for an error. Schwellenbach issued a walk to Alec Burleson to start the 2nd inning, plunked Jacob Stallings to start the 3rd, and walked Schwarber two batters later. Otherwise, he was on point, striking out the side in the 3rd.

Arenado made up for his error with a three-run blast in the 3rd inning to break the game open, 5-0. Green Lake took advantage of two walks in the 1st when Arenado and Andrew McCutchen ripped back-to-back singles to open the scoring. Josh Bell later added a two-run bomb off RP Steven Okert. Ronel Blanco took the loss for Merrill Creek, roughed up for 5 runs on 8 hits over 6 innings to fall to 12-13. Coincindentally, he threw the season's first no-hitter, a combined effort in May.

It's the 3nd no-hitter in the DMBL this season -- 35th in league history -- after teammate Hunter Greene blanked Empire City in July and the Mudskippers' combined effort over Allentown in May. The last time there were as many as three no-hitters in a season was 2018; there were also 3 in 2015 and 2014. There have been 2 no-hitters every season going back to 2021.

Schwellenbach lowered his already league-best ERA to 2.26, ahead of Empire City's Paul Skenes (2.47), and WHIP to just 0.84. He extended his league-leading win total to 21 along with his win percentage (.840, 21-4). It's his 5th shutout on the season and 8th complete game, also topping the DMBL by a wide margin. That's the most complete games by a DMBL pitcher since Corey Kluber tossed 9 for Sardine City in 2018, and the most shutouts since 2016 when Zack Greinke had 6 for Tucson.