Story by Hal Goodtree | July 15, 2010 | Tags: baseball, Sports, Thomas Brooks Park, USA Baseball
USA Baseball contributed to this story. Photos for CaryCitizen by Karl Fisher.
Cary, NC – In the first meeting of a five game series, USA Baseball College National Team hung a no-hitter on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Gold Medal winner Korea, winning 3-0 at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary.
The sophomore pitching trio of Sonny Gray (Vanderbilt), Kyle Winkler (Texas Christian) and Noe Ramirez (Cal State Fullerton) struck out 13 batters and allowed no hits.
Gray (1-0) retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced, only issuing a walk to the third batter of the game on his way to a nine-strikeout performance. Winkler relieved Gray in the seventh, retiring six of the seven batters he faced. Noe Ramirez shut the door on the Koreans, picking up the save after striking out the side in the ninth.
Sonny Gray blanked Korea. Photo by Karl Fisher.
The no-hitter was the first since July 2, 2009 when a quartet of hurlers combined to no-hit Guatemala inside the National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.
Team USA jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Jackie Bradley, Jr. (South Carolina) pushed across Drew Maggi (Arizona State) on a ground out to short. Maggi drew a lead off walk, then swiped his fourth and fifth bases of the tour before touching home.
Back-to-back RBI doubles by Nick Ramirez (Cal State Fullerton) and George Springer (Connecticut) in the eighth padded Team USA’s lead to three, 3-0. Bradley, Jr. singled to right to leadoff the inning then scored from first on Ramirez’ double down the right field line. Springer followed with a double of his own to the same spot of the field scoring Ramirez.
The Korean pitching staff struck out a combined 11 USA hitters with Chi Young Lim fanning five in the loss. Lim allowed one run on three hits and walked two before Ji Woong Yoon relieved him in the third frame, where he also allowed three hits over 3 2/3 innings with four punch outs.
Offensively Team USA had seven batters with at least one hit with Springer and Alex Dickerson (Indiana) leading the way with two each.
The two teams will be back in action at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary for game two of the five-game friendly international series Thursday night with a 7:30 p.m. (EST) first pitch scheduled.
See more of Karl Fisher’s game photos on Flickr.
