On a night where college baseball’s aces took the mound across the country, a lesser-known entity made his case for most impressive performance of the young season. Charlotte 49ers right-hander Blake Gillespie made history on Friday night, fanning 11 batters while not allowing a single hit.
Blake Gillespie’s Historic No-Hitter
Taking the mound against the James Madison Dukes, Charlotte’s ace got off to a red-hot start. He struck out the first two batters he faced before forcing a pop-out to end the first, and it was off to the races.
A walk in the second ended the chance at a perfect game, but JMU’s Eli Steadman was promptly thrown out attempting to steal second, preserving a potential minimum-batter faced no-hitter.
Gillespie then struck out at least one batter per inning through the sixth as the crowd began to anticipate the no-hitter. Throughout the outing, Gillespie threw over 70% of his pitches for strikes and only filled the count on two different occasions through nine.
In the end, it was a dominant fine two frames that saw Gillespie close out the no-hitter. After striking out the side in the eighth, he finished the ninth with two strikeouts, including the game’s last batter: 27 up, 27 down for Gillespie.
“It was the most amount of pure joy I’ve had, probably ever,” Gillespie told the media after the game. “Just taking it one pitch at a time and whatever happens is supposed to happen.”
Gillespie’s no-hitter became the second in Charlotte’s history, a feat head coach Robert Woodard hadn’t been apart of before.
“I’ve gotten to coach Division I baseball for 15 years and it’s a long list of pitchers that have been awesome in that stretch,” Woodard said. “But that’s the first complete game no-hitter that I’ve gotten to coach, be a part of, and witness. It’s so hard to do. It’s a credit to Logan Poteet behind the dish, to Cameron Hansen, our pitching coordinator, to Michael Oh for training him all fall, to Blake’s family for being here, and obviously to our defense playing behind him.”
Gillespie got some help at the plate with Caleb Estes and Carson Bayne knocking in two RBIs apiece. Connor Maryniak added the lone home run of the game as five runs were easily enough to clinch the victory with Gillespie on the mound.
The win was Gillespie’s first of the season as the former Georgia Bulldog looks to gain more footing with the 49ers in 2025. He now has 27 strikeouts through four appearances on the hill this season.
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Charlotte and JMU will square off in the second of their weekend series on Saturday, March 8, at 2 p.m. ET.
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