Villaman No-no Paces Panthers Past Walkertown

Villaman’s No-No Paces Panthers

On a night where the No. 1 ranked player in the 2019 class did not have his best stuff, he still worked to throw a no-hitter, leading Ledford past Walkertown in 1st round action of the NCHSAA 2A State Tournament.  Villaman threw 107 pitches, striking out 14 and only issuing 1 walk. Ledford did make two errors on the day, providing a few base runner opportunities for Walkertown.

Villaman cruised in the first two innings, recording 4 strikeouts, including the side in the 2nd.  In the 3rd, with 2 outs a knuckling line drive was hit a SS Cameron Mills who took a misstep and played the ball off his chest.  A 50/50 call was determined to be an error by the official scorekeeper. The only other threat to the no-hitter came from Walkertown leadoff hitter Corbin Lanowitz who hit a hard ground ball to 2B Zach Weant’s left.  Weant took a deep angle, catching the ball outside his glove hand as he squared up to retire Lanowitz by a step.

Of the 14 strikeouts, Villaman recorded 8 on fastball