Baseball: Three Ironbirds Combine to No Hit Monsters 7-0

Posted on , updated on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters
BURLINGTON — Jake Lyons, James Ryan and Kyle Martin combined on the first no-hitter in Aberdeen Ironbirds history, while Toby Welk went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, homer and two RBI in a 7-0 New York-Penn League victory over the Vermont Lake Monsters Monday night at historic Centennial Field.

Lyons (1-3) retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced with five strikeouts over the first five innings, allowing just a leadoff walk in the third inning. Ryan, pitching in his first game for Aberdeen, retired nine of the next 10 batters (only baserunner coming on a two-out error in the sixth) with two strikeouts. Kyle Martin struckout the side in the ninth to seal the no-hitter.

It was the fourth New York-Penn League no-hitter thrown at Centennial Field all-time and the third against the Lake Monsters. Staten Island’s Jason Arnold tossed a nine-inning complete-game no-hitter on July 27, 2001 and three Mahoning Valley pitchers combined for a seven-inning no-no on July 12, 2007 (7-1 win in game two of doubleheader).

Welk tripled and scored with two outs in the top of the first inning and had an RBI double to give the Ironbirds a 4-0 lead in the fifth after Andrew Daschbach (who had a five-RBI game on Sunday), smashed a two-run opposite field homer to rightfield in the third.

Welk doubled again in the seventh and then led off the ninth with his third homer of the season over the advertising billboards beyond the leftfield fence for a 6-0 lead. One out later, Kyle Stowers smacked the Ironbirds third home run of the night over the centerfield fence.

Vermont has now been shutout a team-record 11 times this season, including back-to-back games for the third time this season. Since scoring 14 runs over the first three innings vs. Staten Island on August 7th, the Lake Monsters have now gone 23 straight innings without scoring a run at Centennial Field.

Vermont (25-32) will look to salvage one of the three games in the series vs. Aberdeen at 7:05 pm on Tuesday. It is the third and final Hot Dog Hysteria of the season with 25-cent hot dogs on sale throughout the night.