No-Hitter completes doubleheader sweep
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - RHP Ben Wells, LHP Kyler Burke and RHP Zach Cates combined to throw a seven-inning no-hitter against the Dunedin Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark as a part of a doubleheader sweep.
Daytona won game one 6-4, a resumption of Monday's suspended game. Game two, the no-hitter, was resumed from Wednesday, August 21 in Dunedin, and Daytona won 1-0 playing as the visiting team.
Burke (W, 6-1) tossed five innings and walked two while striking out four. Cates (S, 2) picked up his second save in as many outings with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, including two strikeouts. Wells started the game last Wednesday in Dunedin and worked a perfect first inning before the game was delayed and eventually suspended.
With one out in the seventh of game two, Blue Jays first baseman K.C. Hobson grounded a ball up the middle that deflected off Cates' glove and trickled behind the pitchers' mound. Cubs shortstop Elliot Soto redirected his route in pursuit of the ball, charged towards the mound and side-armed a throw to first that beat Hobson by a half-step to preserve the no-hitter.
The lone run of the game was scored in the third inning on a 1B Dustin Geiger RBI single, his third run-producing hit of the day. After Soto doubled, CF Zeke DeVoss was hit by a pitch, and Geiger singled to left for his 82nd RBI of the season. Geiger hit a solo home run (15) to left and knocked an RBI single on an intended intentional walk pitch in game one.
The Blue Jays sent RHP Jesse Hernandez to the hill to resume the second game on Tuesday, and was extremely sharp. Hernandez surrendered the run on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work.
In game one, leading 2-1 after five, Daytona scored a run in the sixth, two in the seventh, and one in the eighth to take a 6-1 lead.
Dunedin scored three runs in the ninth off LHP Jeff Lorick (two earned), but LHP Frank Del Valle (S, 9) came on with the bases loaded and one out to strike out CF Michael Crouse and Hobson to end the game.
RF Pin Chieh-Chen went 3-for-4 with a two-run single, Soto went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, and C Chadd Krist went 2-for-3, including his fifth home run of the season, a monstrous shot over the left-center field fence.
Krist is 11-for-his-last-25 (.444) over his current season-long eight game hitting streak.
Wells (W, 9-6) was one of six pitchers used by the Cubs in the first game. He tossed 2.1 shutout innings and surrendered one hit with two strikeouts. RHP Austin Reed tossed two shutout innings in relief.
With the wins, the Cubs improved to 70-50 on the season and 35-19 in the second half. Daytona's magic number to clinch the FSL North second half title is two. They need a combination of either two team wins or two losses by Clearwater.
The Cubs and Blue Jays will play another doubleheader on Wednesday to conclude the season series. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 5:05 p.m.