The Carson Blue Jays couldn't have picked a better way to end their summer baseball season.
Not only did the Blue Jays spank Spanish Springs 9-1, but Adam Whitt fired a one-hitter, losing his no-hitter with one out in the seventh inning.
Whitt struck out six and didn't walk a batter. He allowed an unearned run in the sixth when Tommy Champion mishandled Dallas Mellum's fly ball in left field and eventually scored on Shane Lawson's sacrifice fly. Except for the sixth inning, Spanish Springs never got a runner past first base.
"He pitched a great game," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "His pitch count was down and he got ahead of the hitters. We played good defense behind him and we swung it."
Carson struck for four runs in the second thanks to two Spanish Springs errors, singles by Carter Nuckols and Chance Quilling plus a double by Casey Wolfe. Two of the runs scored when Nick Domitrovich's groundball was misplayed.
Carson extended the lead to 5-0 in the third when Domitrovich's reached second on two errors, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Luke Maher's groundball to shortstop.
In the fourth, Quilling doubled, moved to third on an infield out and scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-0.
In the fifth, the Blue Jays fell one run short of a mercy rule win when they scored three runs on two hits and two Spanish Springs errors.
Jason Perko was hit by a pitch, moved to second on Tim Baylor's infield out and scored when Champion's ball was misplayed. Champion moved to second on Brock Pradere's infield out, to third on Shea Bondi's single and scored on Domitrovich's single. An error on Quilling's ground ball made it 9-0. Whitt had a chance to end the game there but hit a one-hopper back to the pitcher.
Quilling finished the game 3-for-4 and reached base all four at-bats. Nobody else had more than one hit.