Santa Barbara High alum Bryce Warrecker was part of combined no-hit pitching performance for the Orleans Firebirds in a 4-0 win over the Chatham Anglers in a Cape Cod League baseball game last week in Orleans, Massachusetts.
In his first start of the summer, the right-handed Warrecker, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, retired all 18 batters in faced in six innings and struck out seven in a 4-0 victory.
Josh Allen of Duke relieved Warrecker and threw two hitless innings, and Harvard’s Chris Clark closed out the no-hitter in the ninth.
The three Firebirds were honored as the Pitchers of the Week in the Cape Cod League.
Warrecker had such great control that he didn’t face a full count until there were two outs in the sixth inning.
“With the crowd behind him, he ripped off a filthy slider to earn his seventh and final strikeout of the evening,” wrote Jack Loder of Orleansfirebirds.com.
“I was just out there making pitches. I’ve always considered myself a strike thrower,” Warrecker told Orleansfirebirds.com. “Garret Guillemette (catcher out of USC) called an insane game, and our defense made great plays behind me. That’s all I was doing really, just pitching to contact and trusting my defense.”
Warrecker threw 81 pitches and had 15 first-pitch strikes.
“I think I got shaken off maybe two or three times tonight,” said Guillemette of Warrecker. “We were on the same page all night. From the first pitch to the last, we knew exactly what we were doing.”
Firebirds manager Kelly Nicholson credited pitching coach Jim Lowlier for convincing him to start Warrecker, who’s primarily been used as a relief pitcher.
“Jim Lawler deserves a lot of credit because he said Bryce would be a good option to start today,” Nicholson said. “He said he’s gonna fill up the zone and he’s gonna throw strikes with three pitches.”
Warrecker’s six innings on the mound were the most turned in by Firebirds pitcher this summer.
Nicholson said there was no consideration of allowing Warrecker to continue.
“That was not an option he was not going to start that seventh,” said the manager. “Eighty (pitches) was plenty, that’s the most anybody has thrown this summer and it was plenty.”
Warrecker was a member of the 2020 Santa Barbara Foresters that won the National Baseball Congress World Series.