G-Braves' No-Hitter Sinks Louisville, 3-0
LOUISVILLE, KY - Rob Wooten, Matt Marksberry and Jose Ramirez etched their names into the Gwinnett Braves' record books on Thursday night, combining to throw the second no-hitter in club history in a 3-0 win over the Louisville Bats (39-41) at Louisville Slugger Field.
It's the first no-hitter for the G-Braves (36-45) since right-hander Todd Redmond accomplished the feat over 9.0 innings on May 28, 2010, also at Louisville.
Wooten (W, 1-1), making just his second career start in spot duty, was nearly perfect in his 6.0 innings. The right-hander set a career high for both innings pitched and strikeouts as he fanned eight. He did not walk a batter and threw 45 of his 61 pitches for strikes.
Louisville got its only two baserunners of the night against him in the fourth. Wooten struck out Jermaine Curtis, but strike three bounced away from catcher Anthony Recker, allowing Curtis to reach first base. Scott Schebler then got to first on a fielding error by shortstop Sean Kazmar Jr., putting runners on first and second.
But Wooten would get Steve Selsky to fly out to center and Kyle Waldrop to ground out to second to end the inning. Wooten completed two more innings before Marksberry (H, 4) entered to begin the seventh.
Marksberry proceeded to strike out two over his 2.0 perfect innings and Ramirez (S, 4) retired all three batters he faced in the ninth, including Curtis on a game-ending fly-out to Matt Tuiasosopo in right field.
Gwinnett scored its runs early, as Blake Lalli singled home Rio Ruiz in the third and Ruiz doubled in Reid Brignac from first to raise the lead to 2-0 in the third. Tuiasosopo capped Gwinnett's scoring output with his team-leading 10th home run of the season, a solo blast to right field in the fifth.
In his first game back off the disabled list, Kazmar Jr. went 3-for-4, while Ruiz was 2-for-5 with a double, run scored and an RBI. Tuiasosopo also singled in a 2-for-4 night, while Recker saw his on-base streak end at 15 while going 0-for-4.
For the Bats, starting pitcher Jon Moscot (L, 4-4) gave up all three runs in 6.0 innings of work, allowing seven hits and two walks. He struck out five. Kevin Shackleford tossed 2.2 innings of relief, yielding four hits and two walks, before Dayan Diaz got one out for Louisville.
The four-game series continues between the G-Braves and Bats on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. Gwinnett will start right-hander Lucas Harrell (3-1, 2.92), while Louisville will counter with right-hander Robert Stephenson (5-4, 3.93). Tony Schiavone has the call of the action beginning at 6:35 p.m. on 97.7 FM.
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The Gwinnett Braves are the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Follow the G-Braves at GwinnettBraves.com, facebook.com/GwinnettBraves1 and twitter.com/GwinnettBraves. Tickets are on sale now at the Coolray Field Ticket Office, call 678-277-0340 or visit GwinnettBraves.com/tickets.