By Mark Robinson
Greenbrier East’s Jonathan Carr, #15, pitched a no-hitter in an away game against Pike View High School, Tuesday, Apr. 5. A no-hitter is a game in which the pitcher does not allow any batter to get on base by hitting the ball, although the batter may get on base because the pitcher walks him, or he might get on base because of a fielding error.
Greenbrier East won the game, 12-1. Pikeview’s only run came in the first inning, with East already holding a 4-0 lead. The Pikeview runner made it to first base because of an error, then Carr walked a batter, then the run scored on a fielder’s choice. The game was decided in six innings, instead of the usual seven, because East took a lead of more than nine runs.
Carr struck out 10 batters, walking only one. In the sixth and final inning, “it was three up and three down,” said Carr, “and I think it just took nine pitches, nine straight strikes.”
Carr also threw a no-hitter last year in a game against Martinsburg, and in last year’s Sectionals he was working on a no-hitter until the second batter spoiled it in the 5th inning. When asked when, in this game against Pikeview, he first realized he might be headed toward a no-hitter, Carr replied, “It was the third inning, and our shortstop Daylon Colley walked up to me and said ‘Hey. Guess what? You’re throwing a no-hitter.’ And immediately I thought ‘Wow, thanks. Now it’s not going to happen.’ After that I really started thinking about it, and I couldn’t get it off my mind. But it still came true.”
When asked what pitches were working for him, Carr answered, “Definitely my fastball.”
He said there were some batters who took quite a few pitches to get the out. “The last batter, the very last strike, I just put my head down and walked over to the sideline. I was pretty excited but I didn’t want to show it.”
Carr mentioned one moment when the no-hitter was most at risk. “I think it was either the first or second inning, and they hit it to Daylon Colley and it was over his head. And I thought ‘Oh no, this one’s going to be a hit.’ But he put in great effort and kept running back, and made like a diving play, and caught it.”
Carr, a senior at East, has been asked by the University of Charleston to play baseball there as a pitcher. The coach there has also held out the possibility that Carr might play some in the field. Carr often plays center field for Greenbrier East when he’s not pitching. Carr explained how he made it to UC.
“I went to a Concord camp last year. The head coach at Concord moved and is now the coach for UC, and he remembered me and asked me to come up, and he made me an offer.”
This was Carr’s third game to pitch this year. In the first game he came out of the game when the score was tied, which counts as neither a win nor a loss for the pitcher. In the next game his team won, 2-1. So his record is now 2-0.