Jordan Shipers Twirls No-Hitter Against West Michigan

Clinton, IA - Jordan Shipers is well regarded in the LumberKings clubhouse as the hardest working player on the team. All of the hard work came full circle for the 21-year-old southpaw when he completed a no-hitter against the West Michigan Whitecaps on Wednesday night at Ashford University Field.

In the 10-0 blowout win for the LumberKings (11-8, second half), Shipers walked two batters and struck out two. He recorded 15 ground ball outs and 10 fly ball outs, including the last. Shipers was in a 2-0 hole to Whitecaps' (9-10, second half) third baseman Edgar Corcino before he got him to hit a shallow flare to right field. Second baseman Dan Paolini raced out and was called off by Jabari Blash who came on and made the catch at the last moment and history was made.

The no-hitter is the first for the LumberKings since Domingo Valdez accomplished the feat in game two of a doubleheader (seven innings) against Kane County on July 9, 2003. Scott Dunn threw a perfect game for the LumberKings on August 3, 2000 against Lansing.

The scoring came early and often for Clinton as they got it going in the first inning on a Ramon Morla RBI single and a Dan Paolini run-scoring double. Jamal Austin hit a sacrifice fly in the third and fifth innings to make it 4-0.

They tacked on more in the sixth inning on Guillermo Pimentel's run-scoring base hit and another sacrifice fly, this time by Mike Dowd. It was 6-0 when they started the seventh inning with four consecutive singles from the top of the order. Morla knocked in his second run of the night and Paolini hit a sacrifice fly to deep right, collecting his second RBI of the night as well.

The defensive play of the night came in the top of the eighth inning with West Michigan left fielder Jason Krizan at the plate. Krizan hit a ground ball to the left Paolini that picked up top spin and darted for the turf after the second bounce. Paolini dove to his left, rose to his feet and threw out Krizan by a half-step.

Shipers needed just 93 pitches to get through the night. It was Shipers' 10th quality start of the year and his fourth win. He also threw a complete-game, three-hit shutout against the Burlington Bees on May 5th.

Game two of the series is scheduled for Thursday night at Ashford University Field. Right-hander Trevor Miller (5-5, 3.43) starts against West Michigan's right-hander Jeff Ferrell (2-3, 5.40). First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 PM.