Some were counting the outs as the rare achievement came into view. No hits through five innings. Then six. Kyle Stively was almost there.
The Quarryville right-hander, who quit baseball for three years and barely played while at Solanco, was working on a masterpiece. No one could touch him.
Before the seventh inning began, Stively and catcher Garrett Worthington sat side-by-side next to the dugout. The word “no-hitter” never entered their conversation.
“We talked about life,” Worthington said. “No baseball. He was out there doing what he needed. Why get in his head and put pressure on him?”
Stively fell one out short.
Luis Padilla singled to spoil the no-hit bid.
But it didn’t spoil the night for Quarryville, which defeated the Royals 8-1 in Game 2 of the Quad County Optimist League championship round at Lancaster Mennonite on Thursday.
Quarryville leads the best-of-five series 2-0. It can capture the title with a win at 6:30 tonight back at Mennonite.
Stively flirted with a no-hitter while pitching for Cecil College last spring. He reached the sixth inning before it was ended by a home run.
This time he was even closer. He strolled to the mound with his glove dangling from his left hand, ready to pursue those final three outs. Narrowly missing out on a small piece of league history didn’t bother him too much.
“I was at 101 pitches going into the seventh,” Stively said. “I was pretty tired anyway. I’ll try for it next time. There’s always another try.”
Stively played baseball through eighth grade. He decided to run track during his freshman and sophomore years of high school. Spring sports were canceled because of COVID-19 when he was a junior.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound pitcher returned to the diamond as a senior. He was limited to a handful of games after breaking his collarbone diving for a fly ball in a preseason practice.
That could have been it. The end of Stively’s baseball life.
Worthington, who had already committed to Cecil College, convinced his friend to also attend the Maryland school.
“I was almost begging him to come with me,” Worthington said. “I just saw the potential. He has the build and he’s a hard worker. I knew he could be good. I was like, ‘You just can’t stop here. You could be so much better than you are now. Why not?’ ”
Stively pitched for two seasons at Cecil. He plans to play for Millersville in the spring.
Quarryville has dominated the first two games of the series against the Royals, who finished first during the regular season. Quarryville built a 5-0 lead through three innings with the runs coming on three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch. All with the bases loaded.
Worthington added an RBI single in the fourth and a run-scoring double in the sixth. Tag Hess launched a solo homer in the sixth.
The only drama left in the late innings surrounded Stively. He didn’t know the no-hitter was ongoing until there was an error on a routine grounder. The Royals playfully lobbied to call it a hit and Stively realized his opponent didn’t have any.
When Padilla, who wasn’t in the starting lineup, stepped to the plate, Stively had retired 16 of the previous 18 batters. Padilla ripped a line drive into left field. Stively was pulled after 112 pitches, 70 strikes.
“It feels good,” he said. “I don’t take summer ball too seriously. Win or lose, I’m not too worried about it. This is the one time I feel like I can just have fun. That’s what I do with it.”
No one has played a bigger part in Stively’s renaissance than Worthington. He was the right-hander’s catcher in college and his catcher Thursday night.
Worthington, it turns out, is a pretty good talent scout. He knew Stively had more baseball left in him.
“Pretty much everyone around him was egging him on to keep going,” Worthington said. “I just knew he was too good to stop playing.”
From one out away to one win away. Stively’s gem gave Quarryville a chance to lock up the title.
