Rivas Throws No-No In 1-0 Victory Over Dr. Krop

The mission for Erislandy Rivas in Tuesday afternoon’s start against the Dr. Krop Lighting was to continue proving to his team he’s ready and able to be the teams undisputed top starter from this point forward. A no-hitter should be a strong enough statement for his case.

The Hialeah Thoroughbreds right-hander shut down the Dr. Krop Lighting for a 1-0 victory and the team’s first no-hitter of the season. Rivas (3-2) struck out nine, walked three and hit a batter against a good Lighting lineup in a district match-up.

As with most no-hit bids, it took some fine defensive plays to make it happen. No-hitters are typically not solely on the pitcher himself, and the rest of the Hialeah team all had major contributions. There were a limited amount of errors and stellar play from the Thoroughbreds infield.

“My teammates had my back the entire time,” said Rivas. “We just have a good family; we all trust each other. That’s what makes me go up on the mound and have that trust in my team, trust and confidence.”

The sophomore righty from Hialeah hopes he sparked a fire for the Thoroughbreds. They prepare for a tough road ahead in which they face four teams that are above .500.

“We enter a challenging part of the schedule; we have Hialeah Educational Academy on Wednesday, a good Miami Beach team on Thursday and Miami Senior on the 17th,” said Hialeah Manager Ozzie Borrell. “Hopefully this game is something that we can build off of and learn from. We left guys on and came out flat against a starting pitcher that threw extremely well today. That can’t happen.”

The most important thing that happened Tuesday afternoon, Hialeah (4-5-1) picked up another district win to improve to 4-2 and third in the standings in 8A-14. The Thoroughbreds were coming off of a 10-0 win over the North Miami Pioneers, and have been getting contributions from everyone on the roster.

With their pitcher and defense dialed in, the Thoroughbreds lone run came in the third inning. It would be all that was needed for Rivas. Leadoff batter Alex Figueroa singled to start the inning, and then stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error. A passed ball and a walk to Daniel Nieto allowed Figueroa to score and give the Thoroughbreds all the offense they needed to win the game.

Dr. Krop Lighting (4-6) battled hard against the Thoroughbreds, but ultimately could not do enough to win the game, and are now 1-5 in a tough district chase. Starter Efraim Vainstein was definitely a positive to take away from Tuesday’s contest. Vainstein gave up seven hits, two walks and an unearned run, and struck out one in a complete-game loss.

“Our pitcher was fantastic,” said Manager Scott Olsen. “When we send out a starting pitcher, we can’t ask for anything more then that. Our offense just didn’t show up today.”

Unfortunately for the Lighting, the game did not provide them with the outcome they had hoped for. But they did manage to make it very interesting in the seventh inning.

The bottom of the seventh started with a deep fly ball that resulted in an error off the bat of Diego Rodriguez. The ball was crushed and beat the outfielder at first, but the outfielder was athletic enough to make a play and get some leather on the ball for it to be ruled an error instead of a double. Rodriguez was followed by Emilio Escandon, who reached first after being drilled in the arm by a pitch, placing runners at first and second with no outs.

After a perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt by Phillip DiMartino advanced Rodriguez and Escandon to second and third, the bleachers started rocking and it looked like a walk-off win was in order for the Lighting. However, the day belonged to Erislandy Rivas. Rivas struck out the next batter for the second out, and then gave the outfield a chance to redeem themselves with a fly ball out to complete the no-hitter.

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