Pitching in front of family and friends at Fresno State, Stanford's Brett Mooneyham tied his career-high with 13 strikeouts and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the Cardinal's 16-0 rout. The Bulldogs broke up the no-no with a two-out bunt single. Stephen Piscotty went 4-for-5 and was a homer short of the cycle, but the story of the night was Mooneyham. He walked two over seven shutout innings to improve to 3-0 after missing all of last season with a thumb injury.
Through three games, here are the stats for Mark Appel, the projected No. 1 pick in June's MLB amateur draft, and Mooneyham.
W-L | ERA | IP | H | R | ER | K | BB | AVG. | |
Brett Mooneyham | 3-0 | 1.71 | 21.0 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 28 | 9 | .139 |
Mark Appel | 2-1 | 3.68 | 22.0 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 26 | 8 | .169 |
If the Cardinal's 1-2 pitchers keep pitching anything like that, Stanford will win at least 2 out of 3 every weekend. While Mooneyham has always had the stuff of a future major leaguer, he has struggled struggled with his command at times. After a strong freshman year, he walked 62 in 87 innings as a sophomore. He's off to a strong start this season with a 28-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
"I feel like I did pretty good," Mooneyham said after the game. I wonder what Mooneyham's "great" looks like.