Swanson, Cunningham Combine For Canterbury Cougars’ No-Hitter

Cooper Swanson and Gus Cunningham forever cemented themselves in Canterbury baseball history, as the two combined for a no-hitter in an 8-0 victory over Saint Stephen’s Episcopal on Tuesday night in the Taylor Emmon’s Classic. With the team coming off their first loss of the season in their last game, Swanson made sure consecutive losses wouldn’t be the case, throwing the first five innings of the ballgame before turning the ball over to Cunningham in the bottom of the seventh.

Swanson struck out six and retired nine of the final eleven Falcons that took the plate against the junior. Cunningham pitched a perfect final inning to lock the no-hitter down.

The Cougars started things off early with a Gus Cunningham RBI grounder to short that scored leadoff hitter Carter Smith, who singled to right on the second pitch he saw from Saint Stephen’s starter Jacob Eyre. After pitching a 1-2-3 first inning, Swanson led off the second with a walk and stole second before being driven in by Jake Crandon. Also driving in runs in the second inning were Donovan Duvall and Tyler Shuck, the latter of whom had two singles on the night in addition to a sacrifice fly that drove in a run.

Eyre pitched three innings for the Falcons and had a perfect third inning — the only inning in which the Cougars didn’t score — before manager Scott Sauerbeck went to the bullpen. Ben Tobio, Sam Odell, and Nick Runcle were the only Falcons to reach base, with Runcle drawing a walk and also getting hit by a pitch. Saint Stephen’s nearly broke through in the bottom of the second inning after Odell reached on a dropped third strike and Runcle walked with two outs, but Swanson worked out of trouble.

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