"You know, this is all just coming together for me," Erik LeBlanc, the coach at A. Philip Randolph, said at about 8:30 last night. "A no-hitter with 21 strikeouts! [Of 22 total outs.]
"We kept things hush-hush during the game. No one really knew it was happening. You're thinking about how maybe we could 10-run them, thus shortening the game. Or that maybe Justo won't go the distance, since he's new to this. We kept asking him, 'Do you feel sore? Are you OK?' He kept saying he was fine.
"When the game ended, we got everybody together and mentioned [the accomplishments]. We did give him the game ball, but I can't say there was wild celebration."
In the Public D
game, played at 48th and
Woodland, Randolph posted a 10-2 win. Ostensibly, the
divisions reflect teams' ability and D is the lowest. U. City is the only
Class AAAA
school in that group; the others are A or AA.
LeBlanc said Rodriguez, a righthander, throws "pretty hard, but that's not the only part" of his repertoire. He added, "He was on his game."
Rodriguez walked five and plunked one and there were four strikeouts in the fifth due to an errant third strike that was followed by catcher Malik Crawford's wild throw. In the sixth, the batter who reached on the HBP made a bid to steal home, but froze in his tracks about halfway down the line and was tagged out by Crawford.
Dajuane Timpson led Randolph's offense with
