Arkansas high school pitcher throws 19-strikeout no-hitter

KTHV

On March 31st, Beebe junior Clayton Ballard had the game of his life.

The left-hander pitched a complete game (7 innings), recording 19-strikeouts and giving up 0 hits.

Badgers head coach Chance Cleveland & Ballard recalled the historic game:

"You look up, you see fourth inning, there's eleven strikeouts, you look over to the stat line, there's no hits, and you go 'hey man, this cat's dealing'," Cleveland said.

"I looked up, and I had like 14 or so strikeouts," Ballard said. "And then no hits were on the board, and I was like 'dang I really am doing this'".

Ballard's teammate Cooper Handly recalled running in from right field when Ballard recorded the final out of the game:

"I looked at my center fielder while we were jogging in and I was like 'did he just do that?' and I was like 'he did!'," Handly said.

Ballard's 19-strikeouts in one game set a new school record at Beebe.

And even more impressively, he did it against one of the state's top-20 ranked teams, Sylvan Hills.

"I've seen some no hits, but really honestly, never against the type of the caliber of Sylvan Hills," Cleveland said. "They're a really solid group."

Ballard also did it just hours after Sylvan Hills put up 19 runs in a 19-2 win over Beebe in game one of their doubleheader on March 31st.

And while the 19-strikeout no-hitter was a rarity, what isn't rare is the talent Ballard has always had.

"He's a power-four type arm. He's a 90-mile-an-hour arm with some crazy stuff, some crazy spin," Cleveland said. "So when you got a guy like that, and he's a bulldog like he is up there, he's tough, when he's on the bump, our guys know we got a shot to win."

Beebe has a few more weeks of regular-season play before the conference tournament begins on May 14th.