Gold Sox hurler tosses no-hitter
Nicolas Waechter is one of the more soft spoken players on the Gold Sox this season.
But Waechter made a loud statement with his arm Wednesday afternoon against the Salinas Valley Packers.
Waechter fired the first no-hitter in Gold Sox history, dominating the Packers 2-0 in a California Collegiate League road game at Salinas Municipal Stadium.
Waechter (3-0), a soon-to-be sophomore at Western Oregon, struck out six and walked two. He retired 10 in a row to begin the game and did not allow a runner to reach third base.
The right-hander said he never threw a no-hitter at any level before, even Little League.
“They hit a couple of line drives,” Waechter said by phone on the bus ride back to Marysville. “(Second baseman) Ryan Angel made a nice play on one of those. They also hit a few balls up the middle and (shortstop) Mark (Steinbeck) made two good plays.”
Waechter said his second best performance was probably at Western Oregon this past year when he struck out 10 in six innings in a loss to Mesa State.
The ninth inning went like this for Waechter: He struck out Ben Cooper, induced a foul popup to Bryson Leblanc and struck out Kellen Walker to end the game.
The Gold Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second inning against losing pitcher Chente Lopez. A.J. Valentine walked, and Angel singled. With two outs, Steinbeck's single scored Valentine.
Yuba-Sutter added one more in the fifth when Steinbeck doubled and eventually stole home. The Gold Sox actually put on a suicide squeeze, but Lopez bounced the ball to the plate, and Dickerson wasn't able to lay down the bunt.
Dickerson reached base four times.
The Gold Sox (23-8, 11-5), who moved a half-game ahead of the Santa Barbara Foresters for first place in the CCL, begin a four-game, nonleague series against the Oakland Eagles beginning today. Yuba-Sutter claimed three of four games against the Eagles last year. All of the games were decided by four runs or less.
The Eagles (21-8) could provide another tough nonleague test, similar to the Maxim Yankees last weekend. Heading into play Wednesday, Oakland is 5-1 against teams from the CCL and is in first place in the Sacramento Rural League with an 11-3 mark.
The Eagles feature a solid outfield of Northern California Community College Player of the Year Greg Gonzalez (Sierra) along with Nate Durham-Hammer (Sonoma State) and Mike Armstrong (Dickinson State).
Gold Sox manager Brad Peek said Tony Baile (0-0, 0.00) will throw in today's opener against Oakland's Ben Buker (3-1).
Eric Thompson (4-1, 1.62) will throw on Friday and Vince DeCoito (1-1, 1.54) on Saturday. Peek is undecided on Sunday.
The Gold Sox have added infielder Jeff Walker (Chico State) to the roster. Kyle Maunus (finger) and Brennan Garr (wedding) will be unavailable for the homestand.
Outfielder Jason Searle (quadricep strain) will likely only be available for pinch-hit duty.
The Appeal-Democrat sports department can be reached at 743-0512. You may e-mail the editor at eric_vodden@link.freedom.com.
