Eby Throws First No-Hitter of Varsity Career in Clayton's 11-0 Win Over Normandy

Clayton Greyhounds junior pitcher Noah Eby felt good about the day as he warmed up Wednesday for a Suburban East Conference contest against the Normandy Vikings. The game proved noteworthy for Eby and ended in an 11-0 win for his team.

“I was feeling pretty good warming up, my fastball was pretty good,” Eby said afterward. “My off-speed wasn’t very good in warm up. I couldn’t locate it very well, but as the game went on I got the slider and change-up down.”

Eby turned a strong warmup into a strong performance: He threw the first no-hitter of his varsity career. The pitcher struck out 12 batters and walked just one. Eby has a 3-1 record this season. The junior also said that his fastball was credible and that he was “throwing harder than usual.”

The Greyhounds improved to 8-5 overall and 2-0 in the SEC with the win. Normandy dropped to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the league.

Clayton wasted little time in establishing a lead. It held a 7-0 advantage at the end of the first inning.

“It’s really good to have a strong inning like that,” Clayton coach Craig Sucher said. “It always makes your pitcher better. Noah did a great job at going right at hitters. He was very sharp today.”  

Sucher said Eby has “an amazing amount of movement on his fastball.”

“What he added today that we hadn’t seen before is that it looked like his velocity was up a bit,” Sucher said. “You put those two things together, and he’s a tough pitcher. He’s a very collected kid, and he controls his emotions, but he’s fiery at the same time."

Eby threw approximately 70, said Sucher. Normandy pitcher Jordan Faulkner threw approximately 120, said Viking coach David Macer.

A wild pitch from Faulkner in the first inning gave Dominic Mena the opportunity to run home and score the Greyhounds' first run. Another Faulkner wild pitch gave Eby the time to run home from third and score the second run. Centerfielder Kid Sutherlin’s three-run double made the score 5-0. A Viking error allowed Sutherlin the opportunity to score the sixth run, and Kellen Green made the score 7-0 when he ran home from third after a Faulkner wild pitch.

Eby’s one-run double in the third inning gave Clayton an eight-run advantage. A Viking error allowed Freddy Barnes and Eby to score, giving the Greyhounds a 10-0 advantage. Mena’s one-run single in the fourth gave Clayton an 11-0 lead.    

Macer said his Viking team had “interdisciplinary issues” in the first inning.

“We had players which were playing for themselves and not the team,” he said. “We had to refresh their memory that they’re playing for the team and not themselves.”

The Greyhounds were scheduled to play MICDS on Thursday.