Southwest Michigan's Wade Davis tosses no-hiter, loses game

A Southwest Michigan fan
experiences one of those
nights. (Battle Creek Enquirer)

In the day of their first ever home game, the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays were snowed out. On the day of their last ever home game, they lost a no-hitter.

5,348 fans, four times their season average of 1,327, watched a doubleheader that closed out the Southwest Michigan's existence. Next season, the team moves to Midland, MI, and become the Great Lakes Loons.

Thursday night, game one of the doubleheader, saw the Devil Rays lose a heartbreaker.

In Game 1, Davis threw the franchise's fifth no-hitter, and second of the season, but Beloit (37-29) scored an unearned run in the fourth inning and it was enough to defeat Southwest Michigan's anemic offense. Oddly, Yancarlos Ortiz, who scored the game's only run, reached base on a Davis fielding error.

Davis (7-12) said the only other no-hitter he threw came when he was "like 10 or 11."

"I didn't have command of all my pitches but they made some good plays behind me," said the 20-year-old Davis.

Davis' seven-inning whitewashing is the third-ever losing no-hitter in Midwest League history and the first since 1972.

The 6-foot-5 Davis, ranked as Tampa Bay's sixth-best prospect, threw 93 pitches—60 of them strikes.

"In the fourth inning I told (hitting coach) Brady (Williams) it would be appropriate to throw a no-hitter and lose," Lichtenstein said.

"It's unfortunate. Wade's been special all year."

In the seventh inning of Game 1, Rays catcher Christian Lopez reached third base with no outs on a three-base error on Beloit pitcher Adam Hawes. But, in a summary of the Rays' season, Lopez was left at third because nobody got the ball out of the infield.

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Game two saw Southwest Michigan beat the Beloit Snappers (Twins) 5-2. The teams play in the Midwest League (Class A).