Pitcher Throws Perfect Game

It is an event in Baseball that rarely happens even at the Major League level. But for Senior Trey Krier, a pitcher on the Mount Marty College Baseball Team, the rare event became a reality. Last Saturday, Krier became the 19th pitcher in NAIA history to pitch a perfect game as he led the Lancers to a 5-0 shutout of Briar Cliff College (IA). Mount Mary went on to sweep the two game series as they won game two 15-11.

One amazing thing about the perfect game performance is that Krier drew 10 fly balls on a day when the wind was blowing straight out to Center Field. During game two, 5 home runs were hit and 26 runs were scored between the two teams. Mount Marty catcher Josh Wenande described it this way: "That’s definitely not the way you would draw it up with the wind blowing like it was, but he, with his change up, he was getting a lot of balls,” Wenande said.

Being that it was a DH, both games only went 7 innings. MMC's Josh Damewood led off the top of the second inning with a home run. Krier struck out two of three batters in the bottom frame, and Mount Mary scored two more runs in the third. As the fifth inning rolled around, Krier still had not allowed a hit or walk. The Briar Cliff team sensed they were about to be on the wrong end of history. "The first time I really thought about it was the fifth inning. Briar Cliff was kinda getting wound up about being no-hit,” Mount Mary Catcher Josh Wenande said. “In the sixth, they were really talking.”

When the game reached the bottom 7th , both pitcher and catcher began to realize just what was taking place. “I’ve never really been nervous out there pitching, but I was pretty shaken out there for a little bit,” Krier said. Wenande had caught no hitters before, but the highest level was Pewee League. He wanted to make sure he made the right pitch calls. “I never had any trouble until the last hitter, just with pitch-calling,” Wenande said. "Here is the perfect game, and I want to call an inside fastball, but things are going through my mind. Is (the batter) going to hit it? Is (Krier) going to leave the ball over the middle of the plate and the guy get a base hit or something?”

After the final out, Wenande didn't know how to celebrate. "I’m kinda running out there not really knowing ... Do I jump up and down? Do I scream and yell, knowing with that second game was coming up,” he said. “The coaching staff did a good job of keeping us focused.” Unfortunately for Briar Cliff starter Nathanael Olson, he would get the loss in spite of striking out 10 batters in the game.

As mentioned earlier, Mount Marty went on to win game two of the DH 15-11, thus sweeping the two game series against Briar Cliff. Mount Marty, an NAIA school in Yankton, SD, competes in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). They have an overall record of 20-8 and 7-1 in GPAC play. They travel to Blair, NE Saturday for a DH against GPAC opponent Dana College. For more information on this story, you can go to www.naia.org.