Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
CLINTON, Iowa – It had already been a memorable season for Connor Grey.
The summer had seen Grey, St. Bonaventure’s single season strikeout record holder, dominate the Northwest and Midwest Leagues in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He even earned a short stint pitching in Triple-A, just one step from the majors.
But Friday night saw Grey earn a piece of baseball history: Pitching for the Kane County Cougars, an ‘A’ affiliate of the Diamondbacks, he was perfect.
The 2016 St. Bonaventure baseball graduate tossed the first perfect game in Diamondbacks minor league history against the Clinton LumberKings, striking out eight along the way. He needed just 100 pitches to complete perfection – 70 of which were strikes.
Grey worked a three-ball count just three times on the night, and used a couple of outstanding defensive plays behind him to keep the base paths empty all evening.
In the ninth, Grey showed no jitters – he struck out Jhombeyker Morales and Nick Thurman back-to-back on 1-2 counts before coaxing a shallow fly to right off the bat of Louis Boyd on a 2-2 pitch to complete his masterpiece.
The 20th round pick of the Diamondbacks in last June’s MLB Draft spread his outs evenly – nine by fly out, eight by strikeout, eight by ground out and two liners to third base – one each in the third and eighth innings.
Along with being the first perfect game in Dbacks minor league history, it also marks the first perfect game in Kane County history and first by any Midwest League pitcher since 2004.
The Frewsburg, N.Y. native has pitched at four different levels in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization this season and has been dominant along the way. In all this season, he’s struck out 91 batters while walking just nine.
Over his two seasons in the Diamondbacks system, he is 13-6 with a 3.38 ERA including 142 strikeouts and just 27 walks in 163.1 innings.
One of five St. Bonaventure products currently playing in the minor leagues, he finished his Bonnies career with a program record 95 strikeouts during his senior season of 2016. He also posted a 2.84 ERA in 92.0 innings of work in Brown and White that season and ranks fifth in Bona career innings pitched with 260 during his four seasons.
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