O'Brien Throws No-Hitter as Keys Split Quasi-Twinbill

Lynchburg, Va. -Mikey O'Brien threw the seventh no-hitter in Frederick Keys history as the club split a quasi-twinbill with the Lynchburg Hillcats on Thursday night at City Stadium. The no-hitter was the first by a Keys pitcher since Nathan Moreau accomplished the feat on June 30, 2010 at Salem, and was the second by a Carolina League pitcher this season. Behind O'Brien's masterpiece, Frederick took game two 2-0, after dropping the front-end of the doubleheader 2-1.

Facing Lynchburg for the first time in his career, O'Brien (3-4) struck out nine and walked only one batter through seven innings. Needing 90 total pitches, the right-hander allowed only two baserunners to reach and retired 19 of the last 20 batters he faced. Winner of his last two starts, O'Brien has not allowed a run in his last 17.1 innings and has not handed out an earned run in his last 19.1 frames.

In game two, the Keys recorded four hits against Luis Lugo. Three of those came from Austin Wynns, while three were doubles. After Wynns was stranded aboard at second in the second, Lugo (7-10) retired the next eight he faced, before the visitors cracked the scoreboard in the fifth. Wynns just missed a home run with a double off the leftfield wall, checking in at second instead with his second two-bagger. He moved to third on a sac-bunt by Adrian Marin, before coming home on a suicide squeeze with Anthony Caronia at bat.

Frederick added insurance with two outs one inning later. Wynns recorded his third hit of the game with a single to left, and scored one batter later on a double by Marin. Lugo suffered the loss, allowing two runs on four hits, while tying his season-high of 6.2 innings.

Lynchburg earned its third walk-off victory of the season, in game one. With the game tied at one, Donnie Hart came on for the Keys to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Eric Haase opened the inning with a bloop double to right and advanced to third on a sac-bunt by Mike Papi.

The Keys chose to intentionally walk the next two batters to set up a lefty-lefty matchup with LeVon Washington. Hart (4-1) struck out the Hillcats leadoff man, before going to a 1-2 count with Yhoxian Medina. He would tap a slow groundball up the third baseline, which brought home the winning run, as Medina beat the throw of Tanner Witt. It was Hart's first CL defeat.

After the Keys scored once in the first on a triple by Josh Hart and a sac-fly by Wynston Sawyer, the orange and black would muster only two more hits the rest of the way. Antonio Romero, Trevor Frank and Justin Brantley combined on six innings of one-hit relief to go with nine strikeouts. That trio retired the final nine Keys hitters of the game, while Brantley (4-5) picked up the win tossing a perfect ninth.

The Hillcats tied the score in the home-fourth against Stefan Crichton. Dorsyss Paulino opened the inning with a double and scored on an RBI single by Eric Haase.

The Keys return home on Friday when the Myrtle Beach Pelicans came to town for a 7:00 p.m first pitch. Left-hander Luis Gonzalez (5-10, 6.84) starts for the Keys against Pelicans right-hander Jeremy Null (2-1, 3.58). The homestand will kick off with Fredneck Night and will include an appearance from the stars of the TruTV show Lizard Lick Towing. There will also be postgame fireworks presented by Nymeo. For tickets, fans can call the Keys at 301-815-9939 or visit frederickkeys.com.