Santilises hurls no-no in Game 1 of RC sweep

Juan Santilises etched his name into the Ranger College history books on Tuesday. The freshman righthander highlighted the Rangers sweep of a doubleheader with Western Texas by tossing a five-inning complete game no-hitter and leading the Rangers to a 10-0 victory in front of a small crowd at Ellis Burks Field.

"He was dominating from the start," said Ranger College head coach Scott Norwood. "He was hitting his marks and hitting 95 on the gun. On a cool day, he was throwing heat."

The no-hitter was a first for Santilises. Prior to Tuesday's outing, the Dominican Republic native had not held an opponent hitless in a game at any level. The complete game no-hitter was the first thrown by a Ranger College pitcher in at least five years.

The Rangers, who have now recorded no-hitters in each of the past two seasons, jumped on Western Texas early in Game 1. Keyed by productive at-bats my Alexander Olivo and Ciaran Palmer, the Rangers scored multiple runs in two of the first three innings and staked Santilises to a comfortable 6-0 cushion heading into the fourth.

After pushing home a pair of runs in the first, RC battered Western Texas starter Josh Walpole for four more runs in the third.

Santilises made the lead stand out. He held the Westerners scores in the final two frames. Overall, he fanned five WTC batters in the contest.

The RC bats took care of the rest. After stretching their lead to 8-0 with a pair of runs in the home half of the fourth, Ranger sealed Santilises' no-hit bid by grinding out two additional runs in the fifth. The runs enacted the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Association's 10-run mercy rule.

Olivo and Palmer both registered two hits to pace the RC attack in Game 1.

Santilises' no-hitter was the first for RC since Chris Reynolds and Dillon Morris teamed to hold Weatherford hitless in a 4-2 victory last April on the road. Reynolds fanned four in five innings in that contest before giving way to Morris.

Ranger completed the sweep in Game 2 by grinding out a 7-4 victory.

The Rangers, now 6-4 overall, will return to play on Feb. 21 when they begin a 4-game series in Clarendon. The teams will play doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday.