By Bruce Hack, Lexington Media Relations Director
Malden – Rob Carrillo (UMass Dartmouth) pitched the first no-hitter of the 2023 season and gave the Maddogs their first win of the season in a 4-1 victory over Lexington Blue Sox at Maplewood Park Tuesday night.
Carrillo in his first Intercity League no-no got more efficient as the game went on. He had thrown 72 pitches through the first four innings, but only needed 22 more over the final three frames to close out the game. He retired the Blue Sox in order in the second and fifth innings but dealt with runners on in the other five innings and stranded five runners. Carrillo finished with four walks, six strikeouts, two hit batters and two wild pitches.
“Rob is definitely our guy.” stated Maddogs manager Henry Butterfield III. “He has become our Tuesday night starter”
The no-hitter was Malden’s first in the ICL. It was also the first time the Blue Sox had been no hit in 28 years of play in the ICL.
The linescore was a little odd through the first five innings. For Lexington it read 1 run, 0 hits, 0 errors. For Malden it was 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 error. The sixth inning saw a dramatic change.
The Blue Sox brought in Eric Lopes, their third pitcher of the night. He walked Ben Croteau to start off the inning. Hector Roman Jr. reached on a bunt single, for the second hit of the game, and a throwing error by Sox third baseman Dylan Walsh placed Maddogs on second and third with no outs. On a 3-2 pitch Lopes hit leadoff hitter Quinton Copeland to load the bases with no outs. Lopes then hit Matt Travisano on a 3-2 pitch and the game was tied at 1-1. A walk to Derek Bauer brought in Roman and Malden had taken a 2-1 lead. Lopes was replaced by Anthony Piscitello, making his first appearance on the mound for Lexington. Chris Auferio greeted Piscitello with a fly ball to right that was deep enough to score Copeland with the third run of the inning. The final run scored when Bauer and Travisano pulled off a double steal as the Sox throw home was late and Travisano slid across the plate for a 4-1 lead.
Carrillo walked pinch hitter Aidan Driscoll to start the seventh and there was hope for Blue Sox fans. Unfortunately he induced Pat Casserly into a 4-6-3 double play to quickly get two outs. Nate Wolf grounded out to first to close out the game.
Butterfield said “I realized in the fifth that Carrillo was throwing a no-hitter.”
As often happens in a no-hitter two big defensive plays helped out Carrillo.
In the third shortstop Damian Brown went into the hole and throw out Anderson Jimenez. In the fifth second baseman Travisano made a diving stop of a Dylan Walsh’s attempt at the first Blue Sox hit. Travisano got up and throw out Walsh to end the inning.
Lexington’s only run came in the first. John Fritz walked to lead off the inning. He took off on the 3-1 pitch to Jimenez, thus staying out of the double play, as Jimenez grounded out to shortstop. A wild pitch moved Fritz to third and he scored on Julian Alvarez’ ground out to second.
Jack Swarbrick made his first start for Lexington and pitched two scoreless innings. He gave up a hit and struck out one. Pat McGowan followed with three no-hit, no-run innings. He walked two and struck out three.
In Tuesday’s other game, Andrew Mazzone’s fifth inning grand slam erased a 5-3 Lexington Bulldogs lead to help propel the Sabertooth Expos to an 8-7 win in Lexington. Jairo Vasquez (1-0) worked 2.1 innings in relief of starter Zach Kirby to get the win. Vasquez struck out seven batters, Max Garner hit his first homer of the season for the Bulldogs.
On Wednesday, the Maddogs visit the Melrose Americans at Morelli Field at 7:00 PM and the Blue Sox and Andre Chiefs meet at Maplewood starting at 8:00 PM.
