One pitcher in Southern California is rewriting the region’s baseball record book, one frame at a time.
Torrey Pines (San Diego) senior right-hander Joey Magrisi shut out La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.) Tuesday, allowing just two hits in a 2-0 win to clinch the Avocado West League baseball title.
The “0” on the other side of the score is nothing new for Magrisi, as it was his sixth in a row.
As the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, Magrisi’s six straight shutouts ties the San Diego Section mark set by former Point Loma left-hander and Major League star David Wells in 1982.
In the process, Magrisi ran his scoreless streak to 51, padding the record of Wells’ (42) he had broken last week.
“David helped me all summer,” Magrisi told the Union-Tribune. “I hadn’t pitched for a year, so he helped clean up my mechanics, fine tune things.”
Magrisi (11-0) didn’t pitch last season due to an injury after going 16-3 in two seasons at San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo.
According to the National Federation, the record for consecutive scoreless innings is 80 by Joey Porter of South Natchez Adams (Miss.) in 1973. Only 14 pitchers nationally have ever thrown at least 52 consecutive scoreless innings.
Magrisi struck out 12 in his most recent victory, retiring the last 12 batters he faced, striking out eight and needing just 82 pitches.
In 77 innings for Torrey Pines (25-6), Magrisi has yielded just 36 hits and eight while striking out 104 batters. His ERA is 0.36.
“I think that’s the best game in the streak,” Torrey Pines coach and former Major Leaguer Kirk McCaskill told the Union-Tribune. “The first pitch of the game was a change-up. That set the tone. Joe had a plan, and he executed it flawlessly. … He had all three pitches (fastball, curve and change) working from the start of the game.”
That’s been a trend for, at the very least, 51 straight innings.