Pepitone Part of USA Baseball History
Jul 3, 2009 | Baseball
July 3, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. - Green Wave pitcher Nick Pepitone was one of four pitchers to take the hill for the USA Baseball National Team Thursday night and his efforts, along with fellow pitchers Gerrit Cole (UCLA), Asher Wojciechowski (The Citadel), and Chad Bettis (Texas Tech) combined to throw the first no-hitter in post-trials USA Baseball National Team (Collegiate) history en route to a 10-0 shutout victory over Guatemala at Coleman Field.
Starting pitcher Cole pitched five and two-thirds innings of hitless baseball to kick off the USA no-hitter before being taken out of the game due to predetermined pitch count. Wojciechowski, Pepitone and Bettis came on in relief for Team USA to finish off the no-hitter for Cole. Wojciechowski struck out two batters in his inning of relief, Pepitone struck out one and Bettis closed the game and tallied one strikeout as well.
Pepitone tossed 38.2 innings during the 2009 campaign for Tulane. While inducing 55 ground balls this season, he has also sent 42 batters back to the bench with strikeouts. Having made a team-high 22 appearances in relief, he tallied a team-high nine saves while the native of Katy, Texas boasted a 3.26 ERA.
In 2004, five pitchers on the National Trials Team combined to no-hit Team Canada at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. Thursday night's win over Guatemala marked the first no-hitter in post-trials National Team (Collegiate) history.
Game three of the four game series will continue Friday, July 3, at Coleman Field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
