High school baseball: Beaver River sophomore duo combines on no-hitter amid run barrage

Joslin pitched three and one-third innings and Rice finished the remainder of the five-inning victory that was shortened by the mercy rule. The duo collectively spun the seventh shutout and first no-hitter this season for Beaver River (16-2 overall, 15-2 league).

“It feels nice to be part of that,” Joslin said afterward. “Carter came in and closed it out, we did our jobs to get out of here, now let’s go finish this week out strong and get into sectionals.”

Joslin tallied seven strikeouts and walked three batters before being lifted on 68 pitches with one out in the fourth inning. He recorded a strikeout to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and allowed just one runner to reach second base for the remainder of his outing.

Beaver River coach Brandon DeLong said he was monitoring Joslin’s pitch count and aiming to save his arm with games upcoming against LaFargeville today and Adirondack Thursday to complete the regular season.

Rice recorded a pair of strikeouts and walked one batter in one and two-thirds innings, throwing 32 pitches to complete the no-hit bid.

The Beavers had previously recorded four one-hit shutouts and completed their seventh game allowing two hits or less.

“That (big first inning) helped me pitching a lot, because you don’t have that burden on your back to carry the team,” Joslin said. “It eases things up a lot, you don’t have to come out throwing as hard as you can, you can just dial it in.”

The potent Beaver River offense, which entered as the top run-scoring team in the Frontier League and second in all of Section 3, provided a significant edge for their pitching tandem from the onset.

The Beavers scored nine runs on five hits to start the first inning, sending 13 batters to the plate while capitalizing on three early Lyme errors.

“After our warm-up it was nice to see that, because we didn’t have a good warm-up, but it’s nice to see the bats early,” DeLong said. “The biggest thing is that we were hitting the ball to them, but we were hustling stuff out, and taking advantage of their mistakes was big for us.”

Senior Lucas Roes finished 4-for-5, including a double, with six runs batted in to highlight the onslaught for Beaver River. He delivered a pair of RBI-singles in the first inning.

Jake Boliver went 3-for-4 with a double and was one of 10 Beaver River players to record at least one RBI. Beaver River scored in every inning and mashed for multiple runs in four of the five frames.

The Beavers have registered a double-digit run total in all but five games this year and established a new season high with 20.

“We came out hot and that’s always good to start with a bang,” Boliver said. “You can get the other team’s confidence down when you score like that in the first (inning).”

He later added: “Our lineup, one through nine, we can all hit the baseball, and we practice a lot of situational hitting. We all go up with a plan.”

Lyme (11-3) wrapped up its regular season and is locked into a top-two seed for the “D” Division playoffs, set to host a semifinal game on Friday.

The Lakers had their seven-game win streak snapped, a stretch that included two 20-strikeout performances by junior ace Evan Froelich. He was unavailable to pitch against the Beavers after punching out 20 batters in a victory the day prior.

The Section 3 baseball playoff pairings will be unveiled Sunday with opening-round games to begin for all classes as early as Monday.