To say Ian McCole was in the zone on Thursday would be an understatement. The Saint Joseph's graduate student tossed just the seventh no-hitter in program history en route to a Hawks' 18-0 win over Saint Bonaventure at Handler Park.
McCole needed just 109 pitches to accomplish the feat. He walked one batter and whiffed six. It's the first no-hitter for the Hawks since Randy Mower, Dominic Favazza, and Chris Prescott blanked Saint Peter's on March 16, 2008. It's also the first solo no-hitter since Dave Landers on April 27, 1970, in a 4-0 win at Albright.
McCole faced just three batters over the minimum, with the one walk and two hit batters.
"Just a tremendous performance by Ian today," head coach Fritz Hamburg told SJUHawks.com. "We really needed some kind of pick-me-up to get us back on track; Ian answered that bell and then some. The entire team did a great job offensively and even more so, making some outstanding plays to give Ian the opportunity to do what he did. It was just great to be part of it."
Nate Thomas led the offensive assault for the Hawks, collecting five RBIs while mashing a pair of homers. Brett Callahan and Brendan Hueth chipped in with three RBIs each.
The Hawks (26-23, 10-11) currently sit in the sixth spot in the Atlantic 10 standings; the top seven teams make the conference postseason tournament. The club has two games remaining with Saint Bonaventure this weekend to close out the regular season. A single victory clinches a playoff berth.
"It was a great all-around game," McCole told SJUHawks.com. "Our offense took a ton of pressure off me from the second inning on and made it easy to have the success I had. Our defense made the plays all day long and Andrew [Cossetti] called a great game. [It was a] big team win and exactly what we needed to get the momentum back on our side as we try to qualify for the [Atlantic 10] tournament."
