A new memory in Frederick

Baseball is a funny game.
Especially when you see as many games as I do, they tend to run together and if I see just a little bit before I have to leave or an entire game, usually what you see is unremarkable or memorable for other reasons.

Then again, there are those few nights that catch you off guard and leave you with something indelible in the memory banks.
There was the night that Suns manager Darnell Coles threw his own player (Stephen King) off to the side to keep the player from arguing with an umpire so that HE could argue with him and after being ejected, threw a bucket of balls on the field with some bats to boot!
The Suns opening series against big bonus baby Stetson Allie of West Virginia, who then pitched an inning that would have made Nuke LaLoosh blush with wild pitches that would have killed a batboy had one been in their normal spot, 100 MPH radar clockings and a dugout meltdown has stuck with me as has the night that Juan Soto snapped his ankle avoiding the batboy (that somehow missed the media report, yet if you were one of the 100 people there-you saw how it happened) and Cleveland prospect Dylan Baker throwing five perfect innings on a Frederick home opener for Lynchburg and watching him leave the game warming up for the sixth to miss the rest of the year with a torn elbow ligament.
There have been other nights that have been better remembered for off the field incidents than anything that remembered on the field, but I was able to see something Tuesday night in Frederick with Bill Cover that I hadn't seen before and I'm unlikely to ever see again.

I've never attended a no-hitter in person and we almost saw one on Tuesday,
Instead, we may have seen something more memorable.
Frederick's Michael Baumann was unhittable and that word is often used lightly, but in this case, it's true.
Baumann struck out 12 and walked only two without allowing a hit over six and two-thirds innings, but dominance goes beyond the numbers and Baumann never even had balls hit hard or needed to have his fielders make plays behind him.
Baumann was that strong and you had the feeling if the pitch count didn't exist, he could pitch all night and Wilmington wasn't going to hit him!
Baumann was the Orioles third rounder in 2017 and split last season between Delmarva and Frederick, so he is someone to keep an eye on.

Fast forward to the ninth with Frederick holding a 4-0 lead and the no-hitter intact as Travis Seabrooke took the mound after getting the final out of the seventh and the three in the eighth without allowing a hit.
Wilmington manager Scott Thorman clearly was trying to avoid his prospect-laden squad being no-hit and began to send pinch-hitters to the plate, which in A level baseball usually only happens if a player is injured or you see a cow flying over the moon in mid-game against Seabrooke.
Pinch-hitter Marten Gasparini was called out on strikes- two outs away.
Next, former Hagerstown Sun Blake Perkins was the chosen pinch-hitter and drew a walk.
One out, no-hitter still alive.
Nick Pratto was the next pinch-hitter and as a touted prospect that had the evening off, loomed as a dangerous impediment to the no-hitter, and Pratto drew a walk.
Two on, One out, No-hitter intact.
Seabrooke is removed by Frederick for Luis Perez with Perez facing Seuly Matias, who at Low A Lexington hit 31 homers in 2018 and walked only 24 times.
So of course, Matias draws a walk.
Bases Loaded, One out, No-hitter still intact

At this point, this is where I screw up, I turn to Bill and say "this is about the time someone kicks one".
Sebastian Rivero raps a routine hopper to Keys shortstop Yeltsin Gudino-perfect double play ball to end the game.
Gudino kicks it, Perkins scores, the score is 4-1 Frederick with the shutout gone, but the no-hitter still in play with the bases still loaded.
Catching prospect and 2017 second rounder M.J.Melendez strides to the plate with a batting average of.138. Perez walks him.
No-hitter still on the line, the game is 4-2, bases once again loaded.

Infielder Dennicher Carrasco bats next and with Carrasco at the plate, Perez throws the ball past catcher Stuart Levy and Matias scores.
Now the score is 4-3, the tying run is on third and the lead run is at second and Wilmington STILL doesn't have a hit!
Carrasco won't stop that string either as he pops out to first baseman Trevor Craport, who makes a nice catch near the stands for the second out.
Two on Two out- no hits and shortstop Cristian Perez at the plate.
Perez finally drills a hit as he smacks a line drive by the diving third baseman Willy Yahn down the line to score Rivero and Melendez (the ball wound up being called a ground rule double as it was stuck around the fence.
No-hitter ruined and Frederick is actually losing, Perez then fans Angelo Castellano to finally finish this inning from hell.
Frederick did put the tying runner on base, but Wilmington held on for a stunning 5-4 win off one hit with two out in the final inning and under crazy circumstances.

I've still never seen a no-hitter live, but this meltdown will be just as memorable as if the Keys had polished off the Blue Rocks and completed it.
Baseball indeed is a crazy game.

The evening wouldn't be complete, if not for a graphing story.
I wrote yesterday about graphing the Blue Rocks in Lynchburg and the work getting a few of their prospects.
That enabled me to just enjoy the evening for the most part (I did add a few players from last season's Lexington set) and if I was able to finish any of the cards for Brett Shaw, that's an added bonus.
I decided I would forego my card if Brady Singer or Jackson Kowar signed and try to get them for Brett.
Kowar did sign for others after the game as I was getting two other players, so he signed, but I was unable to nab his card for Brett.
Here's the funny story, the few remaining people after the game (a rain shower delayed the start by an hour) waited for players at a spot near the stadium exit, to the left of the locker room exit, a short walk away.
A player opened the door, looked to the right of the door (not the left) towards the stadium, saw no one and audibly said: "Brady, the coast is clear".
Singer and this player quickly left to walk down the concourse and around most of the stadium to reach their bus all to avoid five or six people.
It was a small walk away for us, to be near our cars and exactly where they had to walk by us anyway.
Singer did stop and sign one for everyone, so I was happy to have Brett's card signed, but I wonder is it that hard to do that all the avoiding and the hassle that's done, all of that is easier than signing one card?
I think about that sometimes, what goes through the mind of someone to go to all that trouble to avoid a few people?
I might understand Tom Brady avoiding 300 people in Boston to be worth the problems, but for a minor league player to go through that to dodge five people in Frederick Maryland?
I thought it was funny- "The coast is clear, Brady" like they were casing the joint in an old Western!

A fun and memorable night in Frederick that between on the field and off the field won't be forgotten anytime soon.

I moved my day in Salem back a day to write this story and I still need to write about the Browns final day draft picks so those will be on their way soon.