Tysons Corner, Va. -- University of Lynchburg baseball graduate student Wesley Arrington threw a no-hitter against Randolph-Macon Thursday as the Hornets defeated the Yellow Jackets 5-0 in the first game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship weekend.
Lynchburg will play the winner of Roanoke and Shenandoah at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 10.
Arrington emerged as Lynchburg's ace over the course of the season, but since he earned the right to start the first game of each weekend double-header, he didn't face the Yellow Jackets during the regular season. Lynchburg only led for three innings during its two losses to the Jackets in April. On Thursday, the Hornets led from the third inning on after Benton Jones put Lynchburg on the board with an RBI groundout.
Despite being no-hit, the Jackets had some early chances to score against Arrington. An error, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for the No. 1-seeded Yellow Jackets in the first inning, but Arrington got Matt Myers to strike out to end the threat. With nine strikeouts on the day, Arrington also ended the fourth, sixth, and eighth innings with strikeouts.
Arrington got two loud outs on fly balls to start the third. One was a line drive to the corner in left field, but Logan Webster tracked it down and snagged the liner over his left shoulder with his back to Arrington and the infield. The next batter flew out to O'Kelly McWilliams IV in deep left-center field, 380' from home plate. After that long out, Randolph-Macon only hit one more ball to the outfield, a fly ball to Quinn Madden in right.
The Yellow Jackets, down to their final three outs in the ninth, were retired in order on a sharp liner to Gavin Collins at third, and two ground balls to Brandon Garcia and Jones. After Jones completed the out to Gjormand at first, Arrington's teammates swarmed the mound to celebrate with their ace who just wrapped up his second complete game in the postseason. He last went nine innings against East Texas Baptist at the NCAA 2023 Division III baseball championship in June.
In his postseason career, Arrington has pitched 48 1/3 innings with 43 strikeouts, 36 hits, and a 2.99 ERA. The no-hitter Thursday marked his fourth postseason win in his ninth postseason appearance. His first two appearances in the playoffs were clean-up duties during NCAA regional action in 2022 and 2023, but his last four appearances are as follows:
- A no-hitter in the ODAC Tournament
- A 6 1/3 inning win in the ODAC Tournament opener against Bridgewater
- A five-out save in the national championship
- His first-career complete game in the NCAA championship series
On top of the Jones groundout in the third, Lynchburg scored on a two-RBI double from McWilliams IV, a line-drive base hit from Collins, and a line-drive homer from Collins that scraped the top of the two-story wall 325' away in left field.
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--LYN--
