Aug. 4, 2008

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Trevor Feeney's MiLB.com statistics page.

Trevor Feeney was selected in the 31st round of the First-Year Player Draft, but he didn't pitch like it on Friday (August 1).

The 22-year-old right-hander allowed one hit over eight innings in the best outing of his brief professional career as the Oneonta Tigers blanked the Tri-City ValleyCats, 6-0, at Joe Bruno Stadium.

Feeney (2-3) had a no-hitter going until Jack Shuck singled to left field with two outs in the eighth. He walked one, struck out nine and lowered his ERA to 3.60.

"I knew I had a no-hitter going," the Illinois native said. "Something like that makes me focus even more than I usually do because I want to make the best pitches I can.

"I was throwing all my pitches for strikes -- fastball, curve, slider and change. And when I got ahead in the count, I was able to mix them up and keep hitters off-balance."

It was just the ninth pro appearance for Feeney, who was selected by Detroit with the 943rd overall pick in the June Draft out of Northern Illinois University. He picked up his first win on June 22, hurling three innings of one-hit relief in an 8-7 triumph over Tri-City. But he came into Friday's outing having dropped three consecutive starts.

"In my last few games, things just didn't go my way," he said. "But right off the bat tonight, I had the support of my offense. So I said, 'If they can put up some runs, I can put up some zeros.'"

The Tigers (19-22) scored twice in the first on RBI singles by Bryan Pounds and Billy Nowlin. They added two runs in the third as Pounds delivered another RBI base hit and Mike Gosse lifted a sacrifice fly.

Feeney retired the first 14 batters before Andrew Simunic reached on Pounds' error at third base with two outs in the fifth.

"Hopefully, a game like this is something I can build on for the future," Feeney said.

Tyler Conn fanned one in a perfect ninth to close out the Tigers' second win in seven games.

Starter Antonio Noguera (1-5) surrendered six runs -- five earned -- on seven hits and four walks over three innings for Tri-City (18-24), which had won five of its previous six games.