Friends' Clark No-Hits Bulldogs
WICHITA, Kan. - Usually good as it is, the Friends University baseball team's pitching was outstanding in Friday evening's doubleheader against McPherson inside Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Falcons got shutouts in both games as the starters were almost untouchable in the victories.
GAME 1 FINAL: FRIENDS 4, MCPHERSON 0
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Friends (18-16, 3-11 KCAC) worked around an error in the top of the 1st, and the Falcons would score in the home half. Garrett Heath (JR/Lake Havasu City, Ariz.) led off with a single, advanced to third on a double by Charlie Aznavoorian (JR/Sydney, Australia), and came home on a sacrifice fly from Dalton Bernardi (SR/Chocktaw, Okla.).
- Mike McGovern (SR/Grand Junction, Colo.) started the Friends 2nd with a walk, and Dalton Dreifurst (SR/Columbus, Neb.) followed with a bunt single. After a pop out, Heath McGovern would score and Heath would reach on a McPherson (6-28, 2-12) error, and another Aznavoorian double made it 3-0 Falcons.
- Aznavoorian would score the final run of the game in the 6th, walking with two outs and then coming home on a double by Matt Burke (SR/Ventura, Calif.) for the 4-0 final score.
BY THE NUMBERS:
0 – Hits allowed by Falcon starter Brett Clark (JR/Temecula, Calif.), who gave up just a single walk with seven strikeouts in the gem on 82 pitches
2 – Hits each for Aznavoorian and McGovern
8 – Exact years since the previous Friends no-hitter, on April 3rd, 2007 at Sterling by Matt Braumberger
GAME 2 FINAL: FRIENDS 5, MCPHERSON 0
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Aznavoorian singled and eventually came home on a groundout by Jordan Varga (SR/Port Colquitlam, British Colum) to put the Falcons up 1-0 in the 1st.
- Friends would add two runs with just a single hit in the 2nd. Dreifurst walked to start the inning, advancing to second when Heath walked, going to third on a wild throw, and scoring on a balk. A double from Matt Burke would score Heath to make it 3-0.
- Zach Ashford (SR/Derby, Kan.) drew a one-out walk in the 3rd, went to second on a groundout, and scored on Dreifurst's single for a 4-0 Friends advantage.
- Fueled by Clark's performance in Game 1, Bernardi was absolutely dominant early, striking out seven of the first nine Bulldogs before McPherson got their first hit of the day leading off the 4th. A walk and a bunt single followed as the Bulldogs appeared poised to make the game interesting, but Bernardi would get the next three batters to strike out swinging to give him 10 strikeouts through four innings pitched.
- Heath started the Falcon's 4th with a double and Troy Williams (SR/North Las Vegas, Nev.) would single him home to wrap up the scoring at 5-0 and Cale Russell (SR/Norman, Okla.) pitched a perfect 7th to close it out.
BY THE NUMBERS:
2 – Hits for Heath to lead the team
6 – Walks drawn by the Falcons, the most in a conference game so far this year
11 – Strikeouts for Bernardi out of 23 batters faced, an individual season-high for Friends
12 – Total strikeouts, with Russell adding one in the 9th, the most for the team in a game on the season
NEXT UP:
Friends completes the season series against the Bulldogs with a doubleheader at McPherson on Saturday, March 4th at 1:00pm.
