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It wasn鈥檛 exactly the Hollywood wizardry of Harry Potter, but it was a pretty darn magical performance from Jacob Potter.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound right-handed Victoria Eagles pitcher threw several spells at the visiting Parksville Royals to collect a no-hitter in his first outing of the season on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Lambrick Park.
The 6-1 win made amends for a 3-2 loss in the first game of the sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League doubleheader.
鈥淚t was an awesome performance. I told him I鈥檇 only seen probably four no-hitters in my life, between little league, professional ball and here,鈥� said Eagles manager Anthony Pluta. 鈥淭wo of them came from the Eagles, one from Ethan Skuja, a couple of years ago, and this one today.
鈥淗opefully, he can only go up from there,鈥� Pluta said with a laugh at witnessing this one in Potter鈥檚 first outing of the season on opening day for the locals. 鈥淗e did give up a run so maybe he鈥檒l get another no-hitter with no runs. Who knows, but he did a heck of a job. It was a great outing.鈥�
Potter finished with 12 strikeouts and three walks as he threw 95 pitches, 61 of which were strikes.
The only run scored came off a passed ball in the second inning after hitting Jacob Ingersoll and walking Jaydan Sabban, before Kieran Bowles laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both to third and second.
Ingersoll scored when Eagles catcher Cam Devlin couldn鈥檛 quite squeeze an inside pitch that got away to plate the lone run.
鈥淵eah, that鈥檚 not a bad start,鈥� said an elated Potter, 17, who pumped his fist on the final out. 鈥淲e got some runs early to calm me down. We didn鈥檛 score much in the first game, but it was good to get some early in the second.鈥�
Asked what pitches he threw in his repertoire, he stated: 鈥淓verything but the kitchen sink. Fastball, curveball, change-ups, sliders, two-seamers 鈥� it all felt pretty good. I鈥檓 really happy about the 12 strikeouts. I usually get about four.鈥�
Offensively, Victoria only managed five hits in the win, two from Luke Seginowich. The Eagles opened up a 2-0 lead in the first, had it cut to 2-1 in the second before adding a run in the bottom half of that inning. Three more runs in the third completed the scoring.
In Game 1, Parksville pitcher Adam McKillican went the full seven innings to earn the win, allowing five hits. He had a 3-0 lead before the Eagles scored twice in the seventh. Bowles had two hits and scored two runs for the Royals and Zach Waddington had two runs batted in.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always good to get a split on the road. That鈥檚 what you shoot for,鈥� said veteran Royals manager Dave Wallace. 鈥淭o win the first game, we played very well against a good team that was short some good players. Potter pitched very well. We made some mistakes, but he pitched very well.鈥�
The Eagles are in Abbotsford today for a doubleheader against the Cardinals.
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