CSN pitchers no-hit Utah team — and lose

In January when Stu Miller, the little baseball pitcher, died at age 87, I thought I might write about him. But I couldn’t find a local angle.

Miller was a pretty good pitcher for five teams: Cardinals, Phillies, Giants, Orioles, Braves. He won 105 games; he lost 103. He was a two-time All-Star; he won an ERA title. He also gave up Mickey Mantle’s 500th home run.

But little Stu Miller was mostly known for two things: Getting blown off the pitcher’s mound in an All-Star Game, and pitching a no-hitter and losing.

The first strange feat was embellished by the sports writers of the day: In the first of two All-Star Games played in 1961, a strong gust of Candlestick Park wind caused the 165-pound Miller to slightly sway on the pitcher’s mound during the ninth inning. A balk was called. Roger Maris advanced to second, Al Kaline to third.

The second strange feat involving the diminutive twirler, as Red Barber or Howard Cosell might have called him, was not embellished.

On April 30, 1967, while pitching for Baltimore, Steve Barber and Stu Miller combined to pitch a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers — and lost. They were done in by an error and a wild pitch and other quirks of fate in the ninth inning.

It was only the second time in modern baseball history (since 1900) that a no-hitter had resulted in defeat. It has happened three times since, the last time in 2008, when the Angels’ Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo held the Dodgers hitless, lost 1-0, and got a big mention on that night’s “SportsCenter.”

And so I never thought I would get to mention Stu Miller, much less Jose Arredondo (who by now is probably back in the Dominican Republic selling used cars) in this space.

That is, until the very same thing happened to the College of Southern Nevada at Price, Utah, on Friday.

The Coyotes, who have been playing excellent baseball after a slow start, lost 1-0 to Utah State University Eastern — this is probably why it only says “HOME” on the scoreboard — on Friday. Three CSN pitchers held the Golden Eagles hitless in a seven-inning game.

Phil Bickford, a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, the college baseball Heisman Trophy — he’s the only juco player on the ballot — pitched the first four innings. Bickford was sensational as usual, walking one and striking out nine of the 14 batters he faced.

Kyle Brown came on and pitched 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief. He struck out two. But in the bottom of the seventh, Brown let a pitch get away. It hit a kid named Greg Money.

The next Golden Eagle put down a sacrifice bunt. One out, man on second. Still zeros across the scoreboard next to HOME. Extra innings still looming.

Alec Hutt came on to pitch.

Hutt struck out the first guy he faced. The next guy hit a routine ground ball to Cain Brady, the CSN shortstop. Brady threw wide to first, pulling Ali Deolarte off the base.

When the Coyotes’ first baseman showed the umpire that he had caught the ball and made a swipe tag, the Money kid came around to score the winning run.

The Golden Eagles jumped up and down. CSN coach Nick Garritano sat in stunned silence in the Coyotes dugout. He had never seen anything like it.

“We must have hit six balls right on the screws with runners on base, we just could not scratch a run across,” Garritano said. “And then as you point out, we get beat on a fluke. It’s baseball. It happens.”

After starting the season 3-8, CSN has pretty much been on a two-month roll (28-5) in improving its record to 31-13. The Coyotes, who will host Salt Lake Community College for four games this weekend — Bickford pitches Friday at 2 p.m. — should be a tough out in the upcoming Region 18 tournament, which decides who goes to the Junior College World Series.

It might even take something extraordinary to beat them.

But if it takes an unassisted triple play to beat them, I’ll do my best not to mention Bill Wambsganss and the 1920 World Series, though it won’t be easy.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.