Pitcher Brooks Pounders threw the third no-hitter in franchise history and the first individual no-hitter as the Naturals pounded the Midland RockHounds 11-0 on Thursday night.
The final line on the night for Pounders was 27 outs, zero hits, Six strikeouts, one hit batter.
Pounders retired the first eight batters before Darwin Perez reached on a Matt Fields error with two outs in the third inning. Pounders allowed only one baserunners the rest of the game as he hit Tyler Ladendorf before getting a groundout to end the inning. Pounders threw 98 pitches, 70 of them strikes on his historic night.
Pounders is the first Naturals pitcher to throw a complete game no-hitter. Two pitchers combined for the franchise's first no-hitter on July 19, 2011. On May 10, 2012, four more pitchers combined to do it, but never has anyone done it by himself.
The Naturals jumped on Midland starter Arnold Leon in the first inning as Brett Eibner and Orlando Calixte reached on back-to-back singles before Brian Fletcher hit his sixth home run of the season to give Northwest Arkansas a 3-0 lead.
They added a single run in the sixth and seventh before exploding for six more runs in the eighth inning.
Eibner, Calixte and Whit Merrifield each had three hits for the Naturals. They tied a season-high with 16 total hits.