Alliance's Holman no-hits Sidney

Behind Jayden Holman's second home no-hitter this season and Jeff Heckman's fifth inning three-run homer, the Alliance Spartans dropped Sidney 5-0 Tuesday night at Bower Park in Alliance.

Holman was one out away from a perfect game, when Spartan third sacker Colton Williamson committed a throwing error on Sidney center fielder Austin Pile's bunt attempt. The Post 17 dugout roared when Pile became the team's first base runner of the night.

Holman, who will play next year at Western Nebraska Community College, fanned a whopping 17 Sidney batters including the first nine of the game. He hit his spots early and often and was able to expand the strike zone over the course of the evening.

The Sidney hitters just never got comfortable at the plate and a poor offensive start to the game certainly didn't help things. But Holman set an aggressive tone early and attacked Sidney's hitters all evening.

"Hey, you can't take anything away from him," said Sidney manager Mark Onstott. "He threw a good game."

Onstott had delivered a simple message to his team ahead of its matchup against the electric Holman.

"We wanted to see the pitching, swing away and let's just see what happens. If we face him again, we'll see what happens."

Holman's curveball was particularly effective, and his one-two fastball-curve combo kept the Red Raiders completely off balance. Even if they knew the curve was coming the pitch simply had too much break to make solid contact.

"He [Holman] would twitch his glove sometimes when he was changing to it," said junior first baseman Skyler Arent. "That was really the only good indicator beforehand."

Still, Arent struck out twice in his only two at-bats against Holman. No one else really fared any better.

"We knew coming in that he threw harder than anyone we had seen," said second baseman Jaden Sears, who also finished the game with a pair of strikeouts. "We were just trying to go up there and put the head on the ball and make something happen. But he was blowing us away."

Sidney right-hander Kyle Burton pitched valiantly in opposition of Holman. Aided by his ability to make timely pitches as well as a couple of sparkling defensive plays, Burton was solid through the first four innings.

He surrendered just one run in those frames, on Brenden Coward's RBI single that scored Jordan McCracken. From center field, Pile gunned down Colton Williamson trying to score a second run on the single.

But then came trouble in the fifth.

Coward led off the inning with a rope up the middle that narrowly missed Burton's head. After fanning center fielder Gaige Lehl with a perfectly placed two-seam fastball, Alliance leadoff hitter Kellon Hall followed with an infield single that snuggled right in between the shortstop and third baseman.

Backstop Colton Rolls next laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced Hall and Coward to second and third respectively.

Hall took a large enough lead off third to entice Sidney catcher Colton Onstott to make a strong but errant throw that rolled to the fence. Coward scored on the miscue to give Alliance a 2-0 lead.

Burton then hit Holman with the first pitch of his at-bat, bringing Jeff Heckman to the plate with two gone in the inning.

After getting ahead in the count Heckman broke the game open. Sitting on a fastball in a 3-1 count he drove the ball well beyond the left field fence, handing Alliance a commanding 5-0 advantage.

Hanging his head in disbelief, Burton walked the next two Spartan batters before he was finally able to get out of the fifth inning. He battled to the end, finishing with a complete game while allowing five runs on five hits. He struck out six and walked four.

"I was trying to throw it high, because they like to swing at high pitches, and keep it outside" said Burton. "There were times I got inside a little too much."

Burton knew he didn't have his best stuff the entire night.

"He left it over the plate, he knew it," said Onstott. "He even said it when I walked out on the field, he said it was my [Burton's] mistake. It's a maturity learning lesson and we'll build from there."

Onstott added that it's all about keeping composure in tough moments.

Burton knew exactly how to improve for his next start, but he pitched a better game than his line indicates.

"I just need to be confident, throw more strikes and let my defense do its thing," said Burton.

When asked how he'll handle this outing Burton simply said,

"Just got to move on."

The seniors will play again Thursday night at Gering at 7 p.m.

Linescore

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

SIDNEY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4

ALLIANCE 0 1 0 0 4 0 X 5 5 1

AB H RBI K BB HR R SB

Bradey Holtz 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

Austin Pile 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Colton Onstott 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Scott Phillips 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Travis Garska 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Jaden Sears 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Skyler Arent 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Kyle Burton 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Keaton Wakefield 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

WP: Jayden Holman

7.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 17K, 0 BB

LP: Kyle Burton

6.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 6 K, 4 BB