Calling it a perfect game would be selling it short. Perhaps it could be called a Swing-and-a-Miss Fest. Carle Place’s junior pitcher Mike Delio tossed the rarest of no-hitters; 21 up, 21 down via strikeout in Tuesday’s 15-0 win over Hempstead.
“This is the first no-hitter at any level that I’ve thrown,” said Delio who was pitching in his first game at the varsity level after two seasons on JV. “Obviously nothing like this either,” he added.
To put this is in perspective, no Major League pitcher has ever struck out more than 14 batters in a perfect game. That was done on two occasions; 1965 by Sandy Koufax and 2012 by Matt Cain. Those feats were accomplished against 27 batters, Delio was able to accomplish his 21 batters in two fewer innings.
Delio noted that he enters every game with the thought of throwing a no-hitter in the back of his mind, and while it “usually never happens,” he began to take notice after the second inning when the number crept up to six.
“I would never imagine that it would hit 20,” he said. Besides the obvious difficulty of not allowing a batter to make contact, another obstacle was the pitch count.
Head Coach Brian Krummenacker noted that his pitch count was pre-determined to be between 80 and 85 pitches. Fortunately, he was able to work quickly and finish the 21st strikeout with only 84 pitches, an incredibly efficient number considering the amount of strikes.
For historical perspective, Johan Santana of the New York Mets tossed a no-hitter in 2012. His pitch count was 134, which made the job of manager Terry Collins very difficult to decide whether to use a relief pitcher. That never became an issue because of his ability to throw strikes.
Delio has certainly put himself on the local radar with this accomplishment, but he stated that the real work was done in the offseason when his hours in the gym resulted in an increase of velocity of eight MPH. That added velocity helped to keep the Hempstead batters behind on his fastball all game, and he was able to use his curveball to keep them off balance.
The junior stated that the past couple days have been crazy between all the support he has been shown in the media and by his friends and family.
“I was fortunate enough to have my parents witness it,” he said. Although he may never experience results of this magnitude, Delio will certainly garner attention throughout the season with his ability on the mound.
