Beloit Shuts Out South Bend 3-0, Taking No-Hitter into Ninth Inning

With a season-high crowd of 4,727 at Four Winds Field on Thursday night, the Beloit Sky Carp shut out the South Bend Cubs by a 3-0 score. Beloit held the Cubs hitless into the ninth inning, shutting out South Bend for the second time this season. With their first win of the series, the Sky Carp improved to 7-10 for the season. The Cubs, meanwhile, fell to 6-12 but remain in a 2-1 series lead for the week.

Click here to view Thursday night’s box score.

Beloit jumped out to a lead right away against No. 10 Cubs prospect Jaxon Wiggins, scoring a run in the first inning. Though Wiggins retired the first two men he faced, catcher Ryan Ignoffo and center fielder Fenwick Trimble interrupted his progress with back-to-back hard-hit singles. Second baseman Gage Miller then bounced a grounder over the glove of Cubs third baseman Ivan Brethowr for an error that scored the game’s opening run.

First-inning run aside, Wiggins turned in another solid outing for South Bend in his fourth start of the season. The right-hander struck out seven in four innings without conceding an earned run, lowering his earned run average to 1.10 for the year. Wiggins ended the start by working out of a jam in the fourth, putting two runners in scoring position before striking out Beloit right fielder Eric Rataczak for the third out.

South Bend’s offense, meanwhile, couldn’t solve the Beloit pitching staff despite Sky Carp starter Karson Milbrandt lasting only 2.2 innings. The No. 25 Miami Marlins prospect got a double play to end the first before working a 1-2-3 second inning and running into trouble in the third. Despite striking out two in the frame, Milbrandt walked a pair, setting up an RBI chance for second baseman Jefferson Rojas. On came right-handed reliever Alex Williams, who set down Rojas on a groundout to preserve Beloit’s lead.

That out marked the first of 10 consecutive Cubs retired by Williams out of the bullpen. The reliever turned in 3.1 innings of perfect pitching, allowing zero opponents to reach base. As opposed to racking up the strikeouts, a method he used in his previous outing against Quad Cities, Williams let his defense do the heavy lifting. Nine of the 10 Cubs who faced him put the ball in play, but none found a way on base.

On the other side, left-hander Evan Aschenbeck made his Midwest League debut and turned in four strong innings as the first man out of the South Bend bullpen. Carrying with him from Single-A Myrtle Beach a 0.00 ERA in 14.1 innings, Aschenbeck lost his shutout streak immediately, giving up a second Beloit run in the top of the fifth. Ignoffo drove it home, ripping a triple into the right-center field gap for his second hit of the night. Aschenbeck would slow the Sky Carp down from there, punching out two in his final inning of work.

Right-hander Ike Buxton followed up Williams out of the Sky Carp bullpen, keeping the Cubs hitless through eight innings. South Bend threatened to find the scoreboard in the eighth, as first baseman Edgar Alvarez worked a leadoff walk and soon after reached second base on a wild pitch. However, Buxton used two groundouts and a strikeout to wiggle out of the frame unblemished.

With left-hander Angel Hernandez entering the game for South Bend in the ninth, Beloit added a third run to take a 3-0 lead. Ignoffo again accounted for it, following back-to-back Hernandez strikeouts with an RBI double into left-center field. The Beloit catcher ended the night going 3 for 5 with two runs batted in, finishing a home run shy of the cycle.

South Bend again put the leadoff man aboard in the bottom of the ninth, as shortstop Cristian Hernandez legged out an infield single to undo Beloit’s potential no-hitter. Right-hander William Kempner shut down the Cubs from there, though, retiring each of the next three he faced to keep the tying run from batting, close out a 3-0 win, and earn a save.

Friday’s fourth game of the series will begin at 7:05 PM, with Beloit throwing No. 1 Marlins prospect Thomas White against South Bend right-hander Nick Dean.