Northern Nash's Carter no-hits Eastern Wayne

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on April 7, 2015 1:48 PM

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WILSON -- In the top of the fourth, down in the count with two strikes, Andrew McKeel turned as a fastball came toward the plate and plunked him in the middle of the back.

McKeel trotted down to first base.

And that was about as good as it got for the Eastern Wayne offense.

Northern Nash pitcher Derrick Carter picked McKeel off a few pitches later, and went on to throw a no-hitter as the Knights beat the Warriors 1-0 in the Golden Leaf Invitational on Monday afternoon at historic Fleming Stadium.

Carter allowed McKeel to reach twice -- once on the hit pitch and once on an error. Both times, McKeel ran into an out with the next batter at the plate.

"Carter has been great for us," Northern Nash coach Leonard Allen said. "He's had a tough draw with teams he's pitched against. But this was his best outing by far. He hit all his spots, worked both sides of the plate and kept them off balance."

Sophomore Brock Johnson was not to be outdone by Carter his counterpart, though. The young righty pounded the strike zone and kept hitters off balance with a good changeup as he surrendered four hits and no earned runs through 41/3 innings.

Johnson threw 55 pitches.

"What a great outing from Brock," Eastern Wayne coach Jabo Fulghum said. "He pitched his hind-parts off. He kept the ball down, mixed his pitches. Brock has been a great pitcher for us."

After walking the Hunter Moore to bring up lead-off man Chad Haggerty in the fifth, Fulghum walked to mound and called on reliever Zack Smith -- the team's go-to guy all year.

Haggerty reached with a base knock, one of his three in the game, to put runners on first and third.

The Knights decided to attempt an early steal with Haggerty, and as Smith stepped off the rubber he ran at Haggerty. Smith failed to check the runner at third and Moore crossed home plate safely to plate the game's lone run.

"That's the difference in the game right there, that one play," Fulghum said. "We work on it in practice. If we check the runner, that run doesn't score, but we didn't execute. That's how it goes."

The pitching and defense were nearly impeccable as the teams combined for five hits. Allen knew it was going to come down to a play like that for the winning team.

Whitman Casper had a double, and Tyler Barrett had the other hit for the Knights.

As the Knights dispersed after the game, the man who had just thrown the no-hitter walked up to his coach. He thanked him. He passed up the opportunity to gloat about his no-hitter to thank his coach for calling great pitches.

"We try to teach these kids to stay humble out there and he's learning," NN head coach Leonard Allen said. "He's a great kid. We're all happy for him. This was a great program win."