Richmond’s Beede blanks Baysox in near no-hitter

San Francisco Giants top pitching prospect Tyler Beede authored a near no-hitter on Thursday in a 3-0 Richmond (19-35) win over the Baysox (22-31) from The Diamond.

Beede allowed just one hit, a soft double in the sixth inning, over eight stellar innings in a hallmark performance. The 23 year-old needed just 73 pitches in the outing and walked only one to earn the win. Ray Black entered in the ninth and struck out the final two batters to earn his fifth save of the season. The win gives the Squirrels the series split heading into a three-day weekend series in Richmond against Harrisburg.

Squirrels starting pitcher Tyler Beede set the tone at the outset for Richmond by setting down the first nine batters he faced. Beede (3-3) needed just eight pitches to get through the first inning and his offense provided an early lead in the bottom of the inning by scoring a pair of runs. Myles Schroder led off the Squirrels half of the first with abase hit and moved to third on a double from Christian Arroyo. Ryder Jones then provided a ground ball to score Schroder and Ricky Oropesa lined a single to center for a 2-0 advantage.

Beede pitched without a runner on base the first time through the Baysox order and had a no-hitter in play until Henry Urrutia lifted a soft single to left with two outs in the sixth inning. Beede needed just seven pitches in the fifth inning and 17 in the sixth. He finished the game with a career-high eight innings pitched

The Squirrels added another run off Bowie starter John Means in the fifth inning that began with a double to left field from Ali Castillo. Castillo moved tothird base on a two-out wild pitch and scored on Ryder Jones’ double to left centerfield for a 3-0 edge. Means (0-2) hurled six innings and allowed all three runs on 10 hits in the defeat.

Through it all, Beede was the story on Thursday and continued to hustle thought the later innings. The righty retired all three batters quickly in the seventh with a pair of groundball outs. Beede came back out for the eighth and walked Austin Wynns with one-out to put a runner aboard. Wynns moved to second on a wild pitch but was double off the bag on a line drive caught by centerfielder Myles Schroder. Ray Black pitched the ninth to earn his fifth save of the season.