It took a couple weeks to get our first no-hitter of the season, but they seem to be coming at a quick pace, now. After Northwest Nazarene's Colton Loomis threw the first of the season, Southern New Hampshire's Ben Criscuolo saw that effort and raised by a significant amount, striking out 15 in a nine-inning no-no against Nyack this past weekend. Additionally, Paine's Evan Krenz twirled a seven inning no-hitter against Lincoln University, striking out 15 with only one walk allowed in an 8-0 victory. The top teams in the country continued their hot starts to the year, while a few other teams put up some more incredible offensive numbers (hint hint, East Stroudsburg) over the weekend.
Below, we take a look at the results from last week's Perfect Game Top 25, plus a few other teams who may get a chance to break in to the rankings soon.
In some non-top 25 news, a couple box scores and notes to share. Hillsdale and Bellarmine played one of the more ridiculous games of the season so far. Sunday evening, the Chargers came out on top of the Knights, 21-19 in 11 innings.
Speaking of GLIAC play, a name to keep an eye on is Saginaw Valley State's Mike Ellenbest. The reigning GLIAC Freshman of the Year, Ellenbest extended his scoreless innings streak to 32.0 with six one-hit innings against Kentucky State over the weekend, where he struck out nine. It will be tough to see that continuing for much longer considering his next two starts should come against Mars Hill and Erskine, but with a couple more great outings, he may be a guy that throws his hat in the ring for All-American honors.
On to the Top 25 results!
#1 St. Cloud State (5-0): SCSU picked up a pair of games and took on Dordt College (in Minnesota!), dispatching them 5-1 and 2-1 in a doubleheader sweep. Reese Gregory was masterful in the opener, allowing two hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings.
#2 Franklin Pierce (5-0): The Ravens kicked off their season with a handful of dominating victories. FPU swept Mercy (9-4 and 8-1) on Friday, beat Queens (9-0) and Bridgeport (8-1) on Saturday, and finished the weekend with a 12-4 victory over reigning regional champions Wilmington.
#3 Millersville (10-1): Millersville's bats were the story of the weekend for the Marauders. The 'Ville went 4-0, beating UNC Pembroke (7-0), Saint Rose (4-2 and 14-3), and finished up with a 22-6 win over Francis Marion. In the UNC-P victory, Brandon Miller put together another incredible start, allowing only two hits in eight innings with six strikeouts. In the FMU win, the Stoltzfus clan combined to go 8-for-11 with six runs, seven RBI and two walks.
#4 Colorado Mesa (8-3): In one of the top series' of the weekend, Mesa split four games with Dixie State, winning the first two games of the weekend (2-1 and 5-4) before falling in the final two (6-5 and 13-12). Four one-run games doesn't mean much in terms of who is better than who, so expect these two teams to possibly meet up again come the postseason.
#5 Tampa (11-1): The Spartans kicked off SSC play with a three-game sweep of Barry (3-2, 12-11 and 10-8). In an effort to begin a winning streak against the Philadelphia Phillies, however, Tampa lost 8-3. That result says more about the Phillies than the Spartans, considering Tampa won last season's game between the two clubs.
#6 St. Edward's (12-5): The Hilltoppers split a four-game series with LIU Post, winning the opener (12-2) before splitting a doubleheader on day two, losing the first game (5-3) and winning the second (17-5). They ended the weekend with a 5-1 loss.
#7 Quincy (3-0): The Hawks finally began their season and made a quick impression, beating regional contender Trevecca Nazarene (12-1) before taking down Wayne State (Mich.) (9-8) and Walsh (15-4).
#8 Missouri Southern (10-1): MSSU won two of three to begin MIAA play against Lindenwood. They dropped the opener, 16-2, before winning the final two games of the series (5-2 and 15-7).
#9 Minnesota State (3-0): The Mavericks are off until March 3rd.
#10 West Florida (8-6): UWF picked up an important GSC series victory, taking two of three from Valdosta State. The Argos won game one (8-0) before falling in game two (3-0). They rebounded for the series victory in game three with a 3-2 win. Walker O'Connor twirled yet another gem in the game one victory, allowing five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings.
#11 Florida Tech (9-6): The Panthers dominated a three-game series against Albany State at home, sweeping the Golden Rams (15-1, 6-0, 10-2) in convincing fashion.
#12 Columbus State (12-3): CSU began conference play and picked up an impressive series victory over North Georgia. The Cougars dropped the first game, 4-3, before picking up victories in the final two games (8-6 and 7-2) to take the series.
#13 Cal Poly Pomona (10-4): The Broncos started CCAA play with a series victory over San Francisco State. The Gators took game one, 5-4, before CPP rebounded for 7-4 and 9-4 victories in the final two contests of the weekend.
#14 UC San Diego (14-2): The early-season CCAA front-runners, however, are the Tritons, whose bats led the way in a four-game sweep of Cal State-San Bernardino. UCSD won 9-4, 20-4, 5-3 and 16-5 to make themselves the leaders in the CCAA South in the early-going.
#15 Mercyhurst (6-3): The Lakers actually picked up a pair of games over the weekend, sweeping two from West Virginia State, 4-0 and 2-1. Colin McKee was brilliant as usual in the game one victory, striking out 10 and allowing only three hits in six innings. Cam Knott was nearly as good in game two, striking out seven and allowing three hits in five innings. Mercyhurst allowed only seven hits in the two games and only collected eight of their own, but came out on top in both.
#16 California Baptist (10-4): CBU padded their record a little bit with a four-game sweep of Saint Martin's, taking out the Saints 10-2, 6-1, 12-6 and 7-5.
#17 Southern Indiana (3-3): The Screaming Eagles went 1-2 on the weekend, winning the opening game against Truman State (14-13) before falling to Ashland (11-6) and in a rematch to Truman State (3-2) to end the weekend.
#18 West Alabama (11-4): The Tigers went 4-0 last week, beating Montevallo (17-10) in a mid-week game before sweeping Mississippi College in a three-game GSC set (10-5, 4-2, 12-7) to move to 4-2 in the conference.
#19 Nova Southeastern (7-7): The Sharks ended their early-season non-conference scheduled with a series loss on the road to Flagler. NSU won only the middle game (2-0), sandwiched between a pair of losses (6-4 and 3-2).
#20 Ashland (1-2): Ashland got their season started with a 1-2 weekend in Evansville, beating only host Southern Indiana in the middle game of the weekend, 11-6. They began the weekend with a loss to Missouri-St. Louis (11-4) and ended it with a loss to St. Joseph's (4-2).
#21 Southern Arkansas (11-5): The Muleriders swept a three-game GAC series from Southern Nazarene, dominating SNU 6-1, 6-1 and 8-3 to improve to 4-2 in the conference.
#22 Catawba (6-6): Catawba began conference play and lost their opening series to Newberry, falling 11-5 and 9-7, sandwiched around a 4-1 victory in the middle game. Will Albertson is still raking (.444, 5 HR, 15 RBI, .800 SLG, .545 OBP), though.
#23 Southern New Hampshire (5-0): The Penmen had a comparable weekend to regional foe Franklin Pierce, picking up a handful of dominating victories. SNHU swept Dominican on Friday (12-3 and 8-6), beat Wilmington (4-0) and Nyack (14-0) on Saturday, then ended the weekend with a 10-3 victory over Mercy. The win over Nyack was the first career SNHU start for junior Ben Criscuolo, and boy did he make it memorable. A guy who saved 16 games with an 8-1 record and an ERA around 1 in his first two years threw a nine-inning no-hitter, mowing down 15 hitters in the masterpiece. I would be shocked if a better performance on the mound pops up this season. Not surprisingly, Criscuolo was named the NE-10 Pitcher of the Week.
#24 East Stroudsburg (8-0): The Warrior bats were out of control over the weekend, sweeping four games in Virginia. ESU beat California (Pa.) 14-1, Post (22-3), Shepherd (19-1) and West Chester (18-10) to stay unblemished on the year. The team is hitting .427 on the season so far and has seven (!) guys with multiple home runs and five guys with 10 RBI on the year already. Their .703 team slugging percentage and .531 team on-base percentage (and 26-for-28 on stolen bases) are all absurd.
#25 USC Aiken (11-3): The Pacers lost a series to Georgia College in PBC play, losing 6-5 and 8-1 before picking up a victory in the series finale, 8-6.
Outside of last week's top 25, here are a couple other teams hoping to break in:
Cal State-Monterey Bay (13-3): In our Marquee Match-Up of the Week, CSMB split a four-game series with Chico State, winning games one (8-5) and three (5-4), but dropping games two (17-9) and four (6-3).
Chico State (12-4): On the flip side of that series, Chico finds themselves still with a very good record after the split.
Cameron (11-0): The team with the most wins in the country without a loss still, the Aggies had the weekend off and are back in action on March 4th.
Dixie State (12-2): The Red Storm entered the weekend 10-0, but split a four-game series with Colorado Mesa.
Mars Hill (13-5): The Lions won their SAC series against Wingate to open up conference play, claiming victories in the first two games of the weekend (4-3 and 10-8) before falling in the finale (12-9).
Alabama-Huntsville (11-5): The Chargers went 3-1 last week, beating Miles (7-3) before winning a GSC series on the road at West Georgia. UAH won the bookend games, 6-4 and 14-6, with an 11-2 loss in-between.
Barton (10-2): Barton continues their early-season success with a Conference Carolinas series victory over King, winning 9-6 and 19-4 in the first and last games of the weekend with a 7-2 loss in the middle.
Coker (13-4): The Cobras are continuing their comeback path, taking a 2-1 series victory at Brevard over the weekend with 6-2 and 16-2 victories sandwiched around a 10-8 loss.
Lenoir-Rhyne (12-3): L-R took two of three from Salem International, winning the first two games of the weekend, 14-3 and 6-2, before falling 7-6 in the series finale.
Newberry (13-4-1): The Wolves opened up SAC play with a series victory over reigning conference king Catawba, winning 11-5 and 9-7 to open and close the weekend with a 4-1 loss in the middle.
Francis Marion (12-3): Despite a big loss to Millersville to end the weekend (22-6), the Patriots still boast an impressive record after beating Saint Rose earlier in the weekend, 16-2 and 28-9.
Lubbock Christian (11-3): The Chaps split a four-game non-conference set with CSU-Pueblo, winning 6-0 and 4-3 in games two and four. They dropped 4-3 and 15-7 contests in games one and three on the weekend.
Trevecca Nazarene (6-2): Trevecca hosted three teams on their home field over the weekend, falling to Quincy (12-1) before picking up victories against Wayne State (Mich.) (9-4) and Walsh (8-2) the following day.
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