SYCAMORE, IL

Luke Harrison of the DeKalb County Liners pitched a no-hit, no-run game on Sunday night, blanking the Rockford Foresters, 1-0, at Founders Field.  It was the first no-hitter in the three-year history of the Liners, and is believed to be the first no-hitter in the history of the Midwest Collegiate League, founded in 2011.

Harrison needed just 109 pitches to complete his masterpiece, walking four and striking out three.  On the season, he is 6-0 with a 1.39 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 52-1/3 innings of work.  He has a WHIP of 1.01 and opponents are batting just .176 against him.

The Liners would get all of the runs they would need in the third inning.  Jared Tomany led off with a towering pop-up to the first-base side of the mound, which fell in for a hit when Forester starter Brady Stanton and firstbaseman Geno Larkin got their signals crossed on who would take the ball.  By the time Larkin had called off his teammate, he wasn’t close enough to make the catch.  Tyler Hamby followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Tomany to second, and Marcus Duckworth singled into the gap to score Tomany for Duckworth’s 17th RBI on the season.

Rockford came close to a hit just once in the ball game, and it came in the third inning as Geno Larkin hit a ball in the hole to the right of shortstop Brent Turner.  Turner’s throw was low and a bit short, but firstbaseman, Joey Burney, did the splits to reach out for the ball to retire Larkin on a bang-bang play.  Aside from the strikeouts, in the game Harrison got eight outs via fly balls to the outfield, four outs via infield pop-ups, twelve outs via the ground ball, including a double play.  The game took 2:05 to complete in 87-degree sunshine at game time.

Harrison plays for Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana