April 22, 1997: College pitcher Scott Barnsby joins Fenway Park no-hit pantheon

The honor roll of great Fenway Park pitching performances would fill a rich leather-bound antique book. It includes rookie Hugh Bedient outdueling the legendary Christy Mathewson in Game Five of the 1912 World Series; Joe Dobson giving the St. Louis Cardinals just two hits in Game Five in 1946; Earl Wilson pitching the first American League no-hitter by a Black pitcher in 1962; Roger Clemens striking out 20 Seattle Mariners in 1986; an emotional no-hitter by cancer survivor Jon Lester in 2008; and, of course, Scott Barnsby.

Scott who?

Barnsby’s heroics of April 22, 1997, may have faded from memory because they took place in a college tournament called the Baseball Beanpot, not a major-league game. Pitching for the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, the 21-year-old junior threw Fenway Park’s first no-hitter since 1965 to beat Northeastern University 1-0. His nailbiting no-no ended with a sensational defensive play that gained national attention. Not a World Series, sure, but a game with a special glow.

Barnsby owed his moment in the sun in part to another college’s decision to scuttle its baseball program. The annual Baseball Beanpot, founded in 1990, originally involved greater Boston’s four biggest college athletic programs – Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, and Northeastern.1 But BU dropped varsity baseball after 1995, leaving an open slot in the tournament.2 UMass filled the vacancy despite being in Amherst, about 90 highway miles west of Boston.3

The Minutemen made the most of the opportunity, winning their debut Beanpot in 1996. Barnsby starred in the clinching game, pitching a 1-0, four-hit win over Northeastern’s Huskies. The righty from Torrington, Connecticut, struck out 11 while issuing no walks.4

The same teams met in the first round of the Baseball Beanpot a year later, but Barnsby’s stock had dipped. Although he entered the game with a 2-0 record, he’d been temporarily removed from the starting rotation after giving up six hits and six runs to Temple University in just 1⅔ innings on April 13.5 UMass head coach Mike Stone, a former minor-league catcher, gave Barnsby the start in the first-round game based on his dominance of the Huskies in the 1996 final. UMass came into the Beanpot with a 10-game winning streak and a 20-6 record.6

Northeastern entered the game with a 19-12 record. Most recently, they’d lost three out of a four-game series to the University of New Hampshire, with all four games decided by one-run margins.7 Right fielder Tim Daley paced the Huskies at the plate; for the full season, he led the team in batting average (.372), home runs (15), and RBIs (59).8 Northeastern’s other weapons included not-quite-19-year-old designated hitter Carlos Peña, who hit .309 with 11 homers and 41 RBIs in 52 games.9 Peña went on to play 14 seasons in the majors, including a season with the Red Sox in 2006.

Northeastern’s mound starter was right-hander John Burns. In his first season as a Husky, Burns led the team with six wins in 1997, a feat he was unable to repeat in four later seasons.10 He entered the Beanpot with a 4-0 record. For the full season, Burns went 6-1 with a 4.22 ERA in 10 games, including nine starts and five complete games.11 The Huskies were coached by alumnus and former minor-league infielder Neil McPhee.12

With 424 fans in Fenway Park, the teams got under way shortly after 2 P.M.13 UMass, playing as the visiting team, began stirring up action in the top of the first. Third baseman Adam Correa walked with one out and was forced at second on a grounder by DH Muchie Dagliere, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Center fielder Doug Clark walked, and a wild pitch by Burns moved the runners to second and third. Left fielder Aaron Braunstein lined out to right to end the threat.

UMass rallied again in the second. Catcher Brian Samela led off with a single and moved to third on a pair of groundouts. Burns stifled the threat by getting first baseman David Giglio to watch a called third strike. The Minutemen mounted still another unsuccessful rally in the top of the third inning, based on singles by Correa and Dagliere. Braunstein again ended the inning, this time with a grounder to shortstop.

The Huskies mounted their first rally in the bottom of the third – or, more accurately, had a rally handed to them. With two out, left fielder Bob McLaughlin reached second base on an error by first baseman Giglio. Center fielder Jason Lewis walked to put runners on first and second. Shortstop Kevin Kim ended the inning with a fly to left field.

After a quiet fourth, UMass scored the game’s only run in the fifth. Giglio singled to right field and, after a strikeout, stole second. Correa’s single to center field scored Giglio for a 1-0 UMass lead.

Barnsby retired eight Huskies in a row between the third and the sixth innings, relying mainly on a fastball and changeup.14 Lewis broke the streak with one out in the sixth, reaching on an error by UMass second baseman Ryan Thistle. Thistle redeemed himself on the next play. He dove to stab Kim’s grounder that seemed headed for the hole and threw to Barnsby covering first for the out.15 A groundout by first baseman Mike O’Donnell ended Northeastern’s chances and extended Barnsby’s no-hitter in progress.

Northeastern was gifted another rally with one out in the seventh. Barnsby walked Peña, then hit catcher Patrick Mason with a pitch to put runners on first and second. UMass catcher Samela helped bail out his pitcher with a heads-up play. He fired a pickoff throw to shortstop Brad Gorrie, catching Peña off base for the second out. Northeastern’s Scott Bouchie then grounded up the middle to Gorrie to end the inning.16

UMass mounted its last threat in the eighth, as an error, a walk, and a passed ball put runners on second and third with two out. Burns caught Thistle looking for his fifth and last strikeout of the game.

Barnsby retired the Huskies in order in the eighth. In the ninth, he had to face the second- through fourth-place hitters in Northeastern’s lineup to nail down his no-hitter. The first two outs were routine, as Kim grounded to second and O’Donnell flied to center field.17

The last out didn’t come quite as easily. Daley, the Huskies’ offensive leader, smacked a high slider into deep left-center field. Convinced it was a hit, Barnsby ran to back up third base. He had the good fortune, though, to have a future major-leaguer patrolling center field for him. Clark got a good read on the ball, sprinted toward left field, and made a sensational diving catch in front of the warning track to secure the no-hitter. An elated Barnsby ran out to left field and tackled Clark; the catch and the celebration were highlighted on CNN and ESPN.18

“I didn’t even see Doug until the last second. I thought it was dropping,” said Barnsby. “On a normal occasion, no one gets to that ball. Doug was just determined to make the play.”19 Clark recalled years later: “What I remember is that Scott was running so hard to congratulate me he almost knocked me back into the wall.”20

Barnsby became the first UMass pitcher to throw a nine-inning no-hitter since April 13, 1957, when future Washington Senator Ralph Lumenti turned the trick against the University of Rhode Island. Barnsby’s no-no was also the first Fenway no-hitter since Dave Morehead’s whitewash of the Cleveland Indians on September 16, 1965.21 Barnsby walked two batters, hit one, and struck out three. Hard-luck loser Burns worked a complete game, scattering seven hits and three walks while striking out five.

UMass claimed its second straight Baseball Beanpot title two days later with an 11-4 victory over Harvard. Barnsby and Clark were named co-Most Valuable Players.22 The Red Sox also recognized Barnsby in a pregame ceremony on June 11 – an exciting honor, even for a self-described “big Yankees fan.”23

Peña was the only one of Northeastern’s players that day to go on to a professional career.24 Regarding the seventh-inning pickoff, he told Peter Gammons in 2019, “I still think about that baserunning mistake and what a bad play it was.”25

On the UMass side, Clark played 17 professional seasons, including stints in Mexico and Korea as well as 14 games with the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s. He later became a hitting coach in the Giants’ system.26 Gorrie played two seasons at short-season Class A in the Oakland organization, while Dagliere played a handful of games in the independent Northeast League.

The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Barnsby in the 25th round of the June 1998 amateur draft. He pitched two seasons in affiliated minor-league ball, plus a third in the Northeast League. A former coach recruited him for an internship with the Cleveland Indians’ scouting department, and Barnsby found a career there. As of the start of the 2024 season, Barnsby was director of amateur scouting for the renamed Cleveland Guardians.27

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Jim Sweetman and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team, and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of college games. As of May 2023, the University of Massachusetts had a box score and play-by-play of the game available online at https://static.umassathletics.com/custompages/sports/m-basebl/stats/1996-1997/html/um27.htm.

Photo of Scott Barnsby provided courtesy of UMass Athletics.

Notes

1 The baseball Beanpot tournament was modeled on the hockey Beanpot, a Boston tradition since 1952 that pits BU, BC, Harvard, and Northeastern against each other every year for local bragging rights. The hockey Beanpot began as a men’s tournament but has since expanded to include a women’s competition. For more information on the hockey Beanpots, see their official websites at https://www.tdgarden.com/events/beanpot (men’s) and https://womensbeanpot.com/ (women’s).

2 Mark Blaudschun, “The Ax Falls on Some,” Boston Globe, April 12, 1995: 37.

3 The University of Massachusetts system has several campuses, including one in Boston, but its flagship campus and largest athletic program is in Amherst. Baseball Beanpot history on the Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 18, 2023. https://nuhuskies.com/sports/2010/4/12/BB_0412102213.aspx?id=556.

4 Andrew Ayres, “UM Wins Beanpot in Classic Fashion,” Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Massachusetts), April 24, 1996: 31.

5 “Jewell Pitches a Gem, Williams Beats Tufts,” Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), April 14, 1997: C1; Luke Meredith, “Barnsby No-Hits Huskies, 1-0,” University of Massachusetts Daily Collegian (Amherst, Massachusetts), April 23, 1997: 10.

6 Meredith, “Barnsby No-Hits Huskies, 1-0.” Stone was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the third round of the January 1974 draft and played five seasons in the organizations of the Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers, topping out at Double A.

7 “Baseball All-Time Results Pre-2010,” Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://nuhuskies.com/sports/2022/6/6/baseball-all-time-results-pre-2010.aspx.

8 “Baseball Yearly Hitting Leaders (Since 1955),” Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://nuhuskies.com/sports/2010/4/21/BB_0421101819.aspx?id=602.

9 “Player Stats (Since 1962),” Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://nuhuskies.com/sports/2010/4/27/BB_0427102321.aspx?id=873; “NU Annual Pitching Records (Since 1955),” Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://nuhuskies.com/sports/2010/4/27/BB_0427105758.aspx?id=741.

10 “NU Annual Pitching Records (Since 1955).”

11 “Player Stats (Since 1962),” Northeastern University athletics website.

12 “Neil McPhee,” Northeastern University athletics website, accessed May 25, 2023, https://nuhuskies.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/neil-mcphee/18. According to Baseball-Reference, McPhee was an infielder in the Minnesota Twins’ system from 1965 to 1967.

13 The Red Sox were in Cleveland that day for a game against Barnsby’s future employer, the Indians. Unless otherwise cited, play-by-play information in this story is based on the box score and play-by-play posted on the University of Massachusetts athletics website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://static.umassathletics.com/custompages/sports/m-basebl/stats/1996-1997/html/um27.htm.

14 Jamie Seitz, “Field of Dreams,” Maroon & White (University of Massachusetts). Seitz’s story was originally issued by the university on June 1, 1997; was posted to the UMass athletic website April 17, 2019; and was accessed May 19, 2023. https://umassathletics.com/news/2019/4/17/baseball-field-of-dreams.

15 Meredith, “Barnsby No-Hits Huskies, 1-0.” The story quotes UMass catcher Samela as saying the grounder seemed “destined for the hole.”

16 Meredith, “Barnsby No-Hits Huskies, 1-0.”

17 Meredith’s game story in the UMass student newspaper gives no indication that the first two outs of the ninth were anything but routine.

18 Meredith, “Barnsby No-Hits Huskies, 1-0;” Seitz, “Field of Dreams.” Meredith’s story incorrectly lists Peña as the final batter.

19 Seitz, “Field of Dreams.”

20 Peter Gammons, “Decades Later, a Beanpot Game Still Binds Men from Different Worlds,” The Athletic, posted April 22, 2019, https://theathletic.com/937665/2019/04/22/gammons-decades-later-a-beanpot-game-still-binds-men-from-different-worlds/.

21 Seitz, “Field of Dreams.”

22 Andrew Ayres, “Beanpot Belongs to UM Again,” Daily Hampshire Gazette, April 25, 1997: 17.

23 Tom Yantz, “For Gordon, It’s Complete,” Hartford Courant, June 12, 1997: C7; Seitz, “Field of Dreams.”

24 “Northeastern University (Boston, MA) Baseball Players,” Baseball-Reference, accessed May 19, 2023, https://www.baseball-reference.com/schools/index.cgi?key_school=cb4ff6e4.

25 Gammons, “Decades Later, a Beanpot Game Still Binds Men from Different Worlds.”

26 Gammons, “Decades Later, a Beanpot Game Still Binds Men from Different Worlds.”

27 Zach Schonbrun, “Talking Baseball,” Taft School website, accessed online May 19, 2023, https://www.taftschool.org/about/taft-voices/post/~board/alumni/post/talking-baseball; “Front Office Directory,” Cleveland Guardians website, accessed May 19, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/guardians/team/front-office.