Michigan State University
10-28
Eastern Michigan
9-27
Smith No-Hitter, Nielsen Homer Deliver Win vs. EMU
4/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 16, 2014
Senior Kelly Smith threw the 20th no-hitter in school history, while junior Carly Nielsen came off the bench to hit a pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the sixth inning as Michigan State earned a 1-0 non-conference win over Eastern Michigan.
Smith, who struck out a season-best nine and walked just one on the day, threw 95 pitches, and had her team-best ninth complete game of the season. The last no-hitter in school history was thrown by Lauren Kramer on Feb. 13, 2010, an 8-0 victory in five innings over Stetson. The last seven=inning no-hitter was tossed by Megan Hair on February 17, 2006, an 8-1 win over Seton Hall where Hair walked six and struck out three. It was the third time in school history that a pitcher threw a 1-0 no-hitter - the two previous came on March 14, 1998 (Stefanie Noffsinger vs. Southern Illinois; 12 strikeouts, 0 walks) and now-assistant coach Jessica [Beech] Bograkos on Feb. 14, 2003 when she struck out eight and walked two vs. East Carolina.
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Nielsen delivered all the offense MSU (10-28) would need when she hit her second home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth inning. Her previous home run came against Ohio State in the Big Ten-opening series. The junior, who made an impressive leaping catch at the wall in right field on Saturday to rob a Michigan batter of a home run, came in as a pinch hitter for shortstop Destinee Luna, and hit a 3-2 pitch out to left field.
"It's extremely difficult to throw a no-hitter," said head coach Jacquie Joseph. "Sometimes, all it takes is one player to step up and do something extraordinary to win you a ball game. We got that today from both Kelly and Carly. We're hoping that this provides us some confidence as we head to Iowa for an important series this weekend. The season is far from over - and our goal is to try to get a little better every day. This was a big-time performance from Kelly today - well-deserved and hopefully a springboard for her for a good weekend."
Smith started strong and struck out two batters in each of the first three innings, issuing just a second-inning free pass to Lindsay Smith with one out in the second inning. With two outs in that inning, Smith hit Jenn Smith to put two runners on, but runners on first and second would be the closest the Eagles came to getting a runner across on the day. Smith hit Amanda Stanton with one out in the second, which would stand as EMU's final baserunner of the contest.
The Spartans, however, had trouble of their own getting runners across, loading the bases in the first and stranding a total of nine runners on the day. Sarah Gutkneht had both of MSU's first two hits, both singles up the middle in the first and third innings. EMU starting pitcher Lauren Wells went 5 1/3 innings, limiting MSU to just those three hits. She struck out three and walked three, and hit four MSU batters on the day.
Smith recorded her eighth strikeout of the day when she got her pitching counterpart Wells swinging in the fifth inning; that tied her previous season high, set in the second game of the year against Rhode Island.
MSU will be back in action on Friday when it starts a three-game series at Iowa.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Smith, Kelly (3-12)
L: WELLS (1-9)
Base Running:
HBP: STANTON 1 ; LUCAS 1
Batting:
HR: Nielsen, Carly 1
RBI: Nielsen, Carly 1
SH: Sanders, Stephanie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nielsen, Carly 1
SB: Reiser, Jacquie 2
CS: Freimuth, McKinzie 1
HBP: Gutknecht, Sarah 1 ; Freimuth, McKinzie 1 ; Reiser, Jacquie 2
