Anchorage Bucs righthander Alex Garcia fired a no-hitter to beat the Anchorage Glacier Pilots 2-0 in a Sunday afternoon Alaska Baseball League game at Mulcahy Stadium.
Garcia, who just finished his freshman season at Cal State-Santa Barbara, faced one batter over the minimum 27. He silenced a Glacier Pilots lineup that had ripped 17 hits the night before.
After pitching five perfect innings, Garcia issued a seven-pitch leadoff walk to the Pilots' Gunnar Troutwine. Garcia got the next batter on a fly ball to center field, and then the Bucs infield turned an inning-ending double play.
The Bucs scored twice in the seventh inning to help Garcia improve to 2-1 this summer in Alaska. Sam Brown led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly, and Brodie Leftridge and Taylor Walls followed with back-to-back doubles, part of a nine-hit Bucs attack.
A 6-foot-3 strikeout machine from Whittier, California, Garcia saw limited action with Santa Barbara in his rookie campaign – 10 innings in three appearances with no decisions. Though he struck out 10, he allowed 11 runs on 13 hits and nine walks for an earned-run average of 6.30.
Garcia has been more effective against batters swinging wood-composite bats in the ABL. He has pitched 16 innings for the Bucs, striking out 18 and allowing two runs on eight hits and three walks for a 1.12 ERA.
The no-hitter marked the second straight dramatic win for the Bucs (5-8 ABL, 7-9 overall). On Saturday, Stephen Lohr smacked a one-out walkoff homer in the 11th inning to lift the team to a 1-0 win over the Seattle Studs.
The game was a slugfest, minus runs. The teams combined for 20 hits, with Seattle getting 12 of them. The Studs stranded 10 runners and the Bucs left nine, including two apiece in the ninth and 10th innings.
Although stymied by Garcia on Sunday, the Pilots (7-9, 7-10) displayed plenty of firepower Saturday in a 13-2 victory over the Chugiak Chinooks. Eleven players provided hits, 10 scored runs and nine drove in runs.
The biggest bat belonged to Kevin Viers, who was 3 for 4 and a home run short of the cycle. His double came in the Pilots' seven-run sixth inning and accounted for one of his three RBIs.