Avs' Salamida flirts with perfection

Two days shy of his 23rd birthday, Salamida flirted with perfection Saturday, then came within three outs of a no-hitter as the Salem Avalanche coasted to a 6-0 victory over the Kinston Indians at Grainger Stadium.

Mike Butia's leadoff single in the ninth broke up the no-hit bid. Salamida, who set down the first 22 batters he faced, finished with four strikeouts and a walk.

Rory Shortell worked a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the shutout.

"It wasn't a huge deal," Salamida said of the hit that ended his night. "I was a little disappointed. A win is a win though, it doesn't matter."

Everyone else in Grainger Stadium knew otherwise.

Salamida, who'd never pitched more than six innings in the Minor Leagues, said his cell phone began ringing non-stop following a game in which he sat alone in the dugout, trying not to think about baseball.

"I pretty much knew the whole night," Salamida said. "In the sixth inning, I got nervous just running out there, but before I threw the first pitch, it went away. I never thought I'd be pitching eight or nine innings."

Salamida cruised through seven innings without allowing a single baserunner. He retired Max Ramirez on a popup to open the eighth but lost the perfect game when Wes Hodges walked on a full count. The left-hander recovered to get John Drennen swinging before inducing an inning-ending grounder from Chris De La Cruz to keep the no-hitter intact.

Butia ruined it, knocking an 0-1 curveball through the right side of the infield. Shortell came on and struck out Jerad Head, then retired Josh Rodriguez and Chris Gimenez to end it.

Salamida, who said his fastball-changeup combo was the key, gave credit to his teammates.

"My defense was excellent tonight," he said. "It was definitely making it a lot easier knowing I had the defense behind me. There were about five or six nice plays out there that definitely helped."

The Avalanche helped Salamida, too, putting up five runs in the fourth to take the lead. Eric King lined a two-run single to left before Josh Flores knocked in Wladimir Sutil with a bunt single to make it 3-0. King scored on shortstop Brian Finegan's error and Justin Towles lifted a sacrifice fly to cap the rally.

Eli Iorg launched his second homer of the season in the seventh to cap the scoring.

This was Salem's second eight-inning one-hitter in less than a month. On April 9, Brad James limited Potomac to a single hit.

"I came in focused, wanting to throw strikes," said Salamida, who led the New York-Penn League with 10 wins and a 1.06 ERA last season. "My other starts have been a little erratic with spotting, so I just wanted to throw strikes."

He also was able to maintain his focus, keeping away from all distractions, superstitious or not.

"I was focused before the game, I didn't talk to anybody, so once the first inning started, no one was talking to me," he said. "It kind of went from there."

Aware of the linescore, Salamida admitted he was nervous at times.

"I definitely thought about it here and there, so I was just trying to get it out of my mind. I just kept staring at the hitter."

What Salamida wasn't aware of was how strikeouts he had.

"That's saying a lot about the defense," he said. "I wasn't really tired, I had adrenaline flowing. It kept me going the whole night. My arm felt as good in the last inning as it did in the first."