Westfield – After catching 10 innings last night, some would think that a player might not be on his perfect game when he has to turn it right back around for a 9 a.m. start. Brian Furey created quite the amazement, though, as the Atlantic Shore pitcher earned a no-hitter on the mound on Tuesday morning.
“When I talked to him (Furey) this morning, he said he’s ready to go,” said Atlantic Shore Manager Dave Geiger. “Catch 10 innings, and then come out and throw a 7-inning no-hitter, tough kid, tough kid.”
“I just did my job and threw strikes,” said Furey.
Mountain Home’s Thomas Jordan III slides back safely as Atlantic Shore’s Eric Greenling tries to get the out. (Photo by Kellie Adam)
Atlantic Shore (NJ) was able to get past Mountain Home (AR) 2-0 on Tuesday morning at Bullens Field in the Babe Ruth World Series quarterfinals. They will now face Bismarck (ND) in the semi-finals on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Bullens Field.
Neither team was able to cash in on a scoring opportunity for quite some time, but someone had to take advantage at some point. Atlantic Shore (NJ) ended up being that team.
Scoreless, going into the bottom of the fifth inning, Atlantic Shore created a scoring opportunity and they certainly cashed in.
The number nine hitter, Kevin Foreman started off the inning with an infield single. After an error off a pick-off throw from Mountain Home pitcher Satchel Harris, Foreman was able to advance to second base. Gabe Donahue then flied out to center field to advance Foreman to third.
Two batters later, C.J. Brown dropped one between center and right field to score Santamaria and give Atlantic Shore the 1-0 lead.
“CJ’s (Brown) been clutch lately,” said Atlantic Shore Manager Dave Geiger. “We’ve moved him up in the (batting) order, he was batting fifth the first three games, now we’ve put to three at the last couple.”
Atlantic Shore was then able to add on one more run in that inning. Eric Greenling hit a slow roller just past the pitcher’s mound as the Mountain Home second basemen made an attempt to bare hand it but couldn’t hang on. The infield hit from Greenling allowed Brown to come around and score to make it 2-0 Atlantic Shore.
The runs from his teammates allowed Furey to get back into his zone and finish off his dominance on the hill. Furey’s no-hitter included just three walks off of 91 pitches.
“It gave me a lot of adrenaline and my adrenaline started pumping,” said Furey. “It gave me more energy and more life to go out there and throw for my team.”
