UIndy’s Brady Ware makes baseball history
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Nolan Ryan. Babe Ruth. Shohei Ohtani. None of them have done what Brady Ware did for the University of Indianapolis baseball team Friday. Not only did he hit for the cycle, he threw a no-hitter — etching himself into baseball legend.
“I mean, I think it’s pretty clear. It’s at the top,” Ware said when rating this accomplishment in his baseball career. “You can’t really do much better than that. Hard to beat that.”
No one’s beat it, not in college or the pros. His stat line reads a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate, starting with a home run and a triple in the second inning. On the mound, he had 11 strikeouts and allowed zero hits.
“I think surreal is a better word for it for me,” Greyhounds head coach Al Ready said. “I mean, it’s just fantastic watching it.”
“Just kind of blank out there. Not really much going on. I think as the game went on, I started realizing what was happening. I wouldn’t say I got nervous but it got me amped up a little bit and ready to keep going,” Ware said.
“He was just throwing the fastball and the change-up for five innings, really. And then in the sixth, we started to bring in the curveball, and they had no idea what was coming at that point,” catcher Will Spear said. “Their faces were just wide, and they were all shocked. They were like, ‘What are we supposed to do now?’”
The kicker? He hadn’t pitched much this season. Friday was his first game back from injury.
“They were planning on keeping me at four innings, 60 pitches, but I guess as the game started to keep going on, they kind of decided to let him keep going at this point,” Ware said.
“People would’ve shown up at my house with pitchforks if I had taken him out,” Ready laughed.
110 pitches later, millions have seen, heard, and retweeted the story.
“Just jaw-dropping,” Spear said. “To see that the university that I go to is on national television, national news, big sports media outlets, just to be a part of that history that Brady was able to accomplish has just been like a dream come true to be honest with you.”
“He’s a journeyman,” Ready said. “If you stay on the path, whereas everybody else jumps off, you’ll be rewarded. Maybe not like this, but you’ll be rewarded because there’s only one person that can say that they’ve thrown a no-hitter and hit for the cycle in the same game and that’s Brady Ware.”
Ware. Ruth. Ohtani. In that order.