Thursday night at St. Pat’s Ball Park, in the very first game of the 2017 St. John’s Molson senior baseball schedule, Dan Connors threw a no-hitter to lead the Roebothan McKay Marshall Gonzaga Vikings to a 2-0 win over the defending champion OMT Shamrocks.
The Shamrocks had defeated Gonzaga in last year’s final.
Connors, who struck out five, allowed two walks and hit one batter in pitching the season-opening gem.
On most nights, the effort by Shammies’ starter Scott Goosney would have been enough to secure a victory — Goosney allowed just the two runs (only one of them earned), five hits, one walk while striking out three — but not with the way Connors was pitching.
Through four innings, the game was scoreless, with both teams only having had two baserunners to that point. But in the top of the fifth, the Vikings got the only run they needed when, with two outs, Gary Dymond doubled and scored on Ryan Hodder’s single.
The Vikings got an insurance run in the seventh when Troy Croft, who had reached on a walk, scored on an error.
Blair Rogers of Gonzaga went two-for-two at the plate.
