BRADENTON, Fla. -- Heading to the bottom of the ninth inning at LECOM Park on Saturday afternoon, six Orioles pitchers had combined for eight no-hit frames. They were also the only six big league hurlers on the team’s travel roster.
So, manager Brandon Hyde left it up to pitching coach Drew French to pick one of the extras from Minor League camp to take the mound with spring history on the line. The choice: Riley Cooper, a left-hander selected in the 13th round of the 2023 MLB Draft who has never pitched above Single-A Delmarva.
“He went with the kid from LSU,” Hyde said.
Perfect, because it gave Cooper a chance at bragging rights over a fellow former Tiger.
Cooper closed out the first Spring Training no-hitter in Orioles history (since 1954) by working a 1-2-3 ninth in a 4-0 Grapefruit League win over the Pirates. Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh right-hander Paul Skenes made his final start of the spring, tossing 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
In 2023, Cooper and Skenes were teammates at LSU, leading the program to a College World Series championship.
Skenes -- who had departed well before the end of Saturday’s exhibition -- will be hearing about the no-no from Cooper, surely?
“Oh definitely,” Cooper said with a grin. “I’ll definitely give him a text after this.”
It may not have been a CWS game in Omaha, Neb., in late June, but Cooper was feeling a bit of pressure when he jogged in from the left-field bullpen for Saturday’s ninth. At first, the 23-year-old didn’t realize a no-hitter was ongoing.
Then, a fan let Cooper know, yelling from the stands, “Keep the no-hitter!”
“I was like, ‘Oh, let’s get it,’” Cooper said. “Pitching’s pitching, so I just went in there and did my thing.”
Cooper was tasked with facing Aaron McKeithan, Jase Bowen and Matt Gorski. And immediately, there was a bit of a scare.
McKeithan hit a grounder up the middle that caught a piece of Cooper’s right foot. But second baseman Livan Soto made a perfect read on the ball, scooping it up and throwing it to first for the first out.
Cooper then won a seven-pitch battle with Bowen, getting him to foul tip a 2-2 changeup into catcher Maverick Handley’s glove.
The Pirates’ final opportunity for a hit came in the form of Gorski, who tormented O’s pitching earlier this spring. The 27-year-old outfielder hit three home runs vs. Baltimore over a pair of games on Feb. 22 and 26.
But Cooper won a five-pitch encounter, as Gorski’s foul tip on a 2-2 sinker was caught by Handley. No celebration ensued, but it was a valuable learning experience.
“Everybody was aware of what was going on,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “And to be a part of something where it’s a little bit more than a game, I think that that’s a good experience for all these guys.”
Hyde himself didn’t realize there was a no-hitter until after Bryan Baker’s 1-2-3 seventh inning. The skipper, who is entering his seventh season in Baltimore and has been coaching in the big leagues since 2010, can’t remember being a part of a Spring Training no-hitter before.
The most recent spring no-no before this was a combined effort by the Cubs vs. the Padres on March 3, 2023, in Peoria, Ariz.
“Really cool the way we pitched,” Hyde said.
Zach Eflin started for the Orioles, working three innings in his last tuneup prior to his Opening Day start vs. the Blue Jays on Thursday in Toronto. Then, the O’s got an inning apiece from Gregory Soto, Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez, Baker and Roansy Contreras.
In his final spring start, Eflin struck out four and issued only one walk while throwing 45 pitches (28 strikes).
“I’ll take it, for sure,” Eflin said. “Just wanted to make sure I checked the healthy boxes, get the pitch count up a little bit. Kind of go in healthy, finish healthy and get ready for the season.”
The Orioles wrap up their Grapefruit slate on Sunday with a road matchup vs. the Braves in North Port. They’ll play an exhibition game vs. the Nationals in Washington on Monday, then will take off for Toronto.
The expectations are quite high for Baltimore, which is aiming to do more than reach the postseason for a third consecutive year.
“I think the goal for every one of us is to win the World Series,” Eflin said. “We have a collective energy and thought process of winning every single game. Beating people into the ground, that’s the kind of mentality this team takes.”
Maybe there will even be a no-hitter -- one that means a little bit more -- along the way.