Dragons blank Redmen behind Gillespie's no-hitter

PEDRO — “Last call getting’ kicked out

Yeah that’s what I’m talking about

Shuttin’ it down, shuttin’ it down.”

Maybe Josh Gillespie happened to listen to Cole Swindell sing his song “Shuttin’ It Down.’ Gillespie was in a total shutdown mode on Wednesday as he fired a no-hitter to lead the Fairland Dragons to a 6-0 Ohio Valley Conference win over the Rock Hill Redmen.

“I realized it in the fifth inning. I knew I was doing it and I was ready to go,” said Gillespie. “I didn’t have any pressure at all. I just went in there and knew what I could do in that moment and we came out on top.”

Gillespie shut down the Redmen lineup by striking out 5 and walking 3. He threw just 91 pitches of which 60 were strikes.

There is a baseball superstition that you don’t talk about a no-hitter in the dugout while it’s going on, but Gillespie said he knew what was going on.

“I heard a bunch of people talking about it, but I just didn’t let it affect me and I just went out there and did what I could do,” said Gillespie.

The no-hitter was the first for a Fairland pitcher since Alex Thackston no-hit No.1 ranked Adena in the district semifinals in 2011.

The previous no-hitter before Thackston was Michael Hill who played at East Carolina and Cincinnati. Thackston played at Marshall. Gillespie was excited to be part of that legacy.

“It just feels great. It’s an amazing achievement,” said Gillespie. “It’s been one of my goals pitching high school baseball so far.”

Fairland (9-8, 7-4) had 6 hits with Nolan Fleming going 1-3 with an RBI, Titus Martin 1-4 with a double and an RBI, Ayden Napier 1-3 with an RBI, Cyrus Cummings 1-3 with a double and an RBI, Mac Clark 1-3 with a double and Gillespie was 1-3.

Rock Hill fell to 4-10 overall and 3-8 in the OVC.

Fairland 001  121  1  =  6  6  1

Rock Hill 000  000  0  =  0  0  8

Josh Gillespie and Cyrus Cummings. Wyatt Kisor, Jerrod Bridges (5), Chris Vanhorn (7) and Austin Simpson. W-Gillespie (IP-7.0, H-0, R-0, ER-0, K-5, BB-3). L-Kisor (IP-4.0, H-1, R-2, ER-0, K-2, BB-1). Bridges (IP-2.1, H-4, R-4, ER-2, K-0, BB-1). Vanhorn (IP-0.2, H-1, R-0, ER-0, K-0, BB-0). Hitting-Fairland: Nolan Fleming 1-3 RBI, Josh Gillespie 1-3, Titus Martin 1-4 2B RBI, Ayden Napier 1-3 RBI, Cyrus Cummings 1-3 2B RBI, Mac Clark 1-3 2B; Rock Hill: None.