USF’s McClanahan, Ragsdale combine to no-hit Army

Five starts into his final collegiate season, USF left-hander Shane McClanahan remains as close to flawless as one can reasonably expect.

Before a sparse USF Baseball Stadium audience featuring roughly a dozen scouts, McClanahan struck out a career-best 15 in six innings, and combined with 6-foot-7 right-hander Carson Ragsdale for a no-hitter in Friday's 12-0 rout of Army (7-10).

"He was pretty special tonight," said Bulls coach Billy Mohl, whose club (13-6) has won six in a row.

It was the first combined no-hitter in program history, and only the fourth overall. McClanahan, a redshirt sophomore shaping up as a potential No. 1 overall pick in this summer's big-league draft, now has worked 30 2/3 innings this year without surrendering an earned run.

He tossed 91 pitches, fanning the last eight batters he faced, and finished two strikeouts shy of USF's single-game record. He struck out the side three times as his fastball periodically hit the upper-90s.

Mohl said there was no thought to sending him back out in the seventh with American Athletic Conference play set to begin next weekend against Connecticut.

"He just had his stuff," Mohl said. "His fastball was exploding, they were having a hard time seeing it, it was moving, and he threw a ton of strikes. He had (three) walks he's not happy about and neither am I, but he was pretty efficient."

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Ragsdale, a Bishop McClaughlin alumnus, struck out seven and walked two over the final three innings. The Bulls collected 13 hits and got home runs from juniors Garrett Zech and Joe Genord. Zech, who hit a two-run triple in the Bulls' six-run first, finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle.