DAVENPORT, Fla. (blugolds.com) — University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire pitcher Matt Moore (Jr. - Stillwater, Minn.) made history by throwing a no-hitter in a 7-0 victory over Bard College on Tuesday night at the RussMatt Invitational. Moore kept the Raptors out of the hit column in a nine-inning complete game to earn the first no-hitter since the baseball program's reinstatement in 2021.
Moore was dominant from the start, retiring the first seven batters he faced. The right-hander only allowed base runners on walks and hit by pitches, but always worked around the danger without allowing a run — or a hit.
The junior struck out 10 batters and walked two. Seven of his 10 strikeouts came across the final five innings of the game. He faced 33 batters across nine innings.
It is the first shutout of the season for the Blugolds' pitching staff, and the first no-hitter in at least two decades.
The Blugolds gave Moore plenty of run support to work with. They scored twice in the second inning: Walter Johnson (So. - Minnetonka, Minn.) crossed the plate on an error, and Ethan Plantz (Jr. - South Elgin, Ill./Elgin Academy) ripped an RBI double down the left field line. Calvin Schmitz (So. - Monticello, Minn.) added an RBI single in the fourth inning to make the lead 3-0.
UW-Eau Claire broke the game open in the sixth. A wild pitch allowed Matt Melendez (So. - River Grove, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) and Drew Salyers (So. - Arapahoe, Colo./Centennial) to score, and Austin Buck (Fr. - Stillwater, Minn.) followed with an RBI single. Buck completed the scoring when he later came in to score on an error.
The Raptors got a pair of runners aboard in the top of the ninth when back-to-back batters were hit by pitches, but Moore finished off the no-hitter with a strikeout.
Johnson and Schmitz led the offense with two hits apiece. Salyers scored three runs and had a stolen base.
Blugolds drop extra-inning thriller
UW-Eau Claire came out on the wrong end of a 10-9 thriller against Hope College earlier in the day on Tuesday. The game went 12 innings and featured a dramatic late rally by the Blugolds to force extras.
Hope grabbed an early lead by scoring twice in the bottom of the first, but the Blugolds responded in a big way in the top of the second. UW-Eau Claire pushed four runs across, with Chase Yaeger (Jr. - Black River Falls, Wis.) scoring on a wild pitch, Schmitz hitting a two-RBI single and Witte adding a run-scoring single.
The Dutchmen cut the lead to 4-3 with a run in the bottom of the second before Schmitz hit an RBI groundout in the fourth to make it 5-3 in favor of the Blugolds.
Hope tied the game with two runs in the fifth, and took the lead with two more in the sixth to make it 7-5. Yaeger singled to bring home Witte in the seventh, and Hope tacked on another run in the eighth to carry a 9-6 advantage into the ninth.
With their backs to the wall, the Blugolds rallied for three runs to force extra innings. Witte started the scoring with an RBI triple, Yaeger added an RBI groundout and Johnson singled to left to tie the game at nine.
Neither team broke through again until the bottom of the 12th, when the Dutchmen got a base runner with two outs, stole a base and came in to score on a walk-off single.
Witte and Otto Treichel (Sr. - Madison, Wis./Madison West) had two hits each. Schmitz drove in three runs, and Witte and Yaeger added two RBIs apiece.
Nico Smith (So. - Chicago, Ill./Taft) started on the mound and worked 5.1 innings. He allowed four earned runs and struck out three. Sebastian De La Toba (Fr. - Chula Vista, Calif./Olympian) pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief. Cole Hinkel (So. - Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View) shined in three scoreless innings out of the bullpen. He struck out two.
UW-Eau Claire closes out its stint at the RussMatt Invitational on Wednesday, March 22. The Blugolds play two games on their final day at the tournament. They take on Hobart at 2:30 p.m. Eastern and Kalamazoo at 7 p.m. Eastern.
