'Hawks Blayne Weller No-Hits Dragons on Thursday

By Tom Nichols

July 10, 2014

South Bend 7, Dragons 1

Click here for the box score

Dayton, Ohio-South Bend pitcher Blayne Weller fired the sixth no-hitter in franchise history as the Silver Hawks defeated the Dayton Dragons 7-1 on Thursday night at Fifth Third Field. A crowd of 9,493 attended the game that was also available to a national television audience on the CBS Sports Network.

Weller walked two and struck out 12 while throwing 125 pitches. He faced three batters over the minimum, allowing an unearned run in the second inning. The Dragons best chance for a hit came in the eighth inning when Gabriel Rosa hit a towering fly ball to left field that was caught at the edge of the warning track. Weller (5-4) struck out the first two batters in the ninth inning before getting Carlton Daal to ground back to the mound to end the game. Weller, whose fastball was consistently clocked at 94 mph throughout the game, reached 95 mph several times in the ninth inning.

Weller overcame some challenges to throw the second no-hitter ever at Fifth Third Field (both by Dragons opponents) and the first since 2001. He was drafted and signed by the Minnesota Twins in 2008, spent four years in the Twins organization before being released and playing parts two years of independent professional baseball. Weller joined the Arizona Diamondbacks organization in 2013.

The Dragons took a brief 1-0 lead in the second inning when Phillip Ervin walked, stole second, and scored on a two-base throwing error by South Bend shortstop Andrew Velazquez. But South Bend tied the game in the third and took the lead with a run in the fifth. They took command with four runs in the sixth and added one more in the ninth to close out the scoring.

Dragons starting pitcher Amir Garrett was charged with the loss to fall to 3-5. He worked five innings, allowing two hits and two runs with five walks and six strikeouts.

The Dragons (10-10) open a new four-game series against the West Michigan Whitecaps on Friday at 7:05 p.m. at Fifth Third Field. Sal Romano (5-8, 4.16) will start for the Dragons against West Michigan's Buck Farmer (8-5, 2.98). The game will be televised on WHIO Digital Channel 7.2 (Time Warner Cable channels 23 and 372).

All Dragons games can be heard on WONE Radio (980 AM) and via the internet at wone.com and through the Dragons Mobile App.

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