Ian Northway has already been part of a no-hitter this season. He came close to tossing his own Wednesday night against the Quincy Blue Devils.
The lone hit off the senior right-hander came with one out in the sixth inning as the Jefferson City Jays won 4-0 on Senior Night at Vivion Field.
It was Northway's first appearance on the mound since the Capital City Invitational early last month.
"He had an ankle injury a few weeks ago and he's gotten healthy and he wanted the ball and it was his time to get the ball and do his thing," Jays coach Kyle Lasley said. "He threw strikes and got ahead of batters and got to work his curveball in. It was good to see."
Northway finished off the final two innings of a combined no-hitter in an 11-1 victory against Buckingham Browne & Nichols (Mass.) on March 28 in Fort Pierce, Fla. Blake Terry pitched the first five innings of that game.
The Blue Devils failed to get on base until a two-out walk to Noah Harbin in the fifth inning. Northway struck out four and got five batters to ground out prior to that walk.
Northway's fifth of eight strikeouts for the game left the runner at first.
After a groundout led off the sixth, Connor Schwindeler lined a single to center field for Quincy's only hit. A 4-6-3 double play followed.
"He kept his head on straight," Lasley said. "He had a good performance on the mound. He competed out there and showed some energy. That's what you need out of a senior on a night like this."
Tucker Schwartz, Jack Shinkle, Mikey Saucedo, Northway, Justin Wood, Terry and Garrett Butel were honored following the game.
"It's my first one I've had here at Jeff City and it's a good group of guys," Lasley said. " They are good teammates and they've been very fun to be around."
The game remained scoreless until Dawson Schulte drove in Butel on a fly ball to left field for a single in the third inning. Butel led off by reaching on an error before stealing second base.
"If we don't hit the ball and spray the ball across the yard we're going to have to find other ways to score and get guys moving," Lasley said. "That's one thing we took advantage of today."
Wood found an unconventional way of scoring in the fourth inning.
Terry got caught in a rundown between first and second base before Wood took off from third base. Wood then headed back toward third base and went to the ground on his way back the other way, avoiding being tagged by the catcher and racing to the plate for a 2-0 lead.
"They said the catcher missed the tag and he got underneath it," Lasley said. "It was hard for me to see. Usually on plays like that when the guy goes down most of the time the umpire calls him out just because of what's going on. I guess he missed the tag and scored a run. It wasn't the prettiest way to score but we scored."
Terry later scored on Schwartz's single to center field.
The Jays added a run in the sixth when Wyatt Fischer made it home when Schwartz reached on an error. Fischer led off with a double over the center fielder and went to third base on a groundout.
Five Jays recorded one hit in the game. Cole Parkhill allowed three runs on three hits in 3 innings. He struck out one and walked two. Harbin finished the final 2 innings on the mound for the Blue Devils, surrendering just one unearned run on two hits.
"Our last four or five conversations we've talked a lot about the offense," Lasley said. "We're just in kind of in a little slump right now. It's going to take a game or two to get us over that hump and we'll be ready to go before districts."
Jefferson City (17-9) is the No. 1 seed in the Class 5 District 9 Tournament, hosted by Waynesville from May 11-14.
To conclude the regular season, the Jays will face Staley and Neosho on Saturday at Staley