Hendrix Caps Off Team USA’s No-Hitter

CARY, North Carolina – Texas A&M rising junior Ryan Hendrix pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to help the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team record a three-pitcher no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Cuban National Team on Wednesday evening at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

It marked the third time in USA Baseball Collegiate National Team history the Americans posted a no-hitter. It was Team USA’s first no-hitter since Carson Fulmer, Tyler Jay, Dillon Tate and Ryan Burr combined to no-hit the Netherlands in 2014. The Red, White and Blue also no-hit South Korea in 2010, a combined effort from Sonny Gray, Kyle Winkler and Noe Ramirez, for the first no-hitter in National Training Complex history.

An SEC trio of Tanner Houck (Missouri), AJ Puk (Florida) and Hendrix combined to throw 99 pitches, including 64 strikes. Making his team-high sixth appearance, Hendrix faced the 9-1-2 hitters in the Cuba order, registering three groundouts to earn his third save of the summer.

Houck worked four pre-determined, perfect innings, retiring all 12 batters he faced. Puk worked four innings, allowing a leadoff walk and a one-out error.

The Cubans got two baserunners for the game with one walk and one error and only managed to get one runner in scoring position. In the seventh, Cuba worked a leadoff walk and sacrificed the runner to second, but Puk got a pair of groundouts to strand the runner at third.

Team USA scored a run in the sixth with an RBI single by Virginia’s Matt Thaiss. Louisville’s Corey Ray scored the second run on a groundout in the eighth.

Texas A&M’s Nick Banks recorded a hit in the contest.

The win snaps a five-game winning streak for Cuba vs. the USA Collegiate National Team and marked the first win for Team USA in America vs. the Cubans since sweeping Cuba in a five-game series in 2013, the first games played between the two nation’s on American soil since 1996.

Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics

More News