Will Pires, Ryan Beck combine on no-hitter for Serra baseball

Pires — in just his second appearance since returning from a scary injury in which he was struck in the face with a line drive April 13 — worked four innings before giving way due to reaching his pitch count.

“It felt great,” Pires said. “These two outings, I couldn’t ask for two better games to come back with. ... I’m just happy to come back and help out. With me, [Jack Brownfield and Rahmi Ismail,] we have a really formidable staff. So, I’m just happy to come back and help the team.”

Beck emerged to close out the final three frames and earn the save. Each walked three batters and pitched through rough innings, yet neither allowed a hit all day.

“It was a really, really windy day … so the ball wasn’t really jumping,” Serra manager Chris Houle said. “So, it was probably a really good day to pitch. They both threw the ball well. Will had a little trouble with the strike zone but then settled in.”

While the wind was roaring, it was also difficult to discern there was a no-hitter in progress as Riordan does not have a working scoreboard. And it didn’t start out like a conventional no-hitter as Pires had to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the first.

Pires issued all three of his walks consecutively with two outs in the first inning. But the senior right-hander bounced back with a strikeout to escape the jam, one of his four strikeouts on the day.

Working on a limited pitch count, Pires was given one more inning of work after the Padres rallied for three runs in the top of the fourth. Pablo Ossio got his team on the board with an RBI single, while Isaiah Crump and D.J. Ghiorso followed with RBI knocks.

“We got those three runs in the top of the fourth so obviously there was a little bit of a cushion there,” Houle said. “And as far as wanting to extend him a little bit more, it was a good time to let him go back out.”

Pires then breezed through the fourth with two groundouts to shortstop Pat Keighran and a swinging strikeout to finish his day.

Then in the fifth, Beck also was met by a difficult rally but got some help from catcher Nico Button to minimize the damage. Beck walked the first batter he faced, Riordan senior Michael Douglas, but Button eliminated the mistake by gunning out an attempted steal of second. The caught stealing loomed large as with two outs Beck went on to issue another walk to Ian DeVaynes and hit David Aberouette with a pitch.

Beck then induced a groundout to third baseman Thomas Gould to retire the threat. After issuing a walk to open the sixth, Button gunned down another attempted steal. Beck went on to retire the last five batters he faced.

“It was a little bit of a weird game,” Houle said. “I don’t think I even recognized it until about the sixth inning when I heard a couple of my guys whispering about it.”

The game ended on Beck’s third strikeout of the day, a called third strike with a fastball at the knees. Not that anyone could tell by Serra’s reaction the right-hander had just locked down a no-hitter.

“Fairly normal,” Houle said of the reaction. “I don’t think there was anything special. I think they all knew. Some big smiles on faces. I think they all knew but there was no big celebrations or anything like that.”

The feat marked the 21st no-hitter in Serra’s history. Matt Gorgolinski in 2013 was the last Serra pitcher to record a no-hitter, a five-inning outing in an 11-0 mercy-rule win over Sequoia. The last Serra pitcher to etch a regulation no-no was Barry Timko in 2010 in a 10-1 win over Carlmont.

The last Serra pitcher to record a no-hitter against a West Catholic Athletic League opponent was Al Orozco in 2002 in a 12-0 win over Riordan.