Ross Swinton’s no-hitter moves Lone Tree along; No. 6 Lisbon cruises in 1A district play

LISBON - The best part of Ross Swinton's no-hitter Tuesday night was that he didn't know he had thrown one. Not until he was tipped off by one of his coaches postgame.

'I had no idea,” the mustachioed senior said with a smile, after a 4-0 victory over Midland in a Class 1A district opener. 'I didn't even think about it until Coach (Mike) Close came up and gave me a hug. It was like ‘Oh, that's nice.'”

Swinton's non-chalant reaction to his gem told you the only thing he cared about was getting the ‘W' for his team. There's a lot of honor in that.

Lone Tree (16-10) moves on to play at Durant (20-7) in a 1A district semifinal Wednesday night.

'It's either win or go home,” he said. 'So I had to bring it.”

Fellow lefty Fisher Bisinger matched Swinton pitch for pitch until the fourth inning. That's when the appropriately named Avery Knock homered to left field leading off.

The sophomore shortstop led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple that led to three big insurance runs.

'My (previous) at-bat wasn't that great,” said Knock, who sported a .519 batting average in the regular season. 'So I decided that I was going to hit that first pitch. I just waited back and drove it. Fastball right down the middle.”

Swinton said he couldn't remember ever throwing a no-no. He struck out seven and had only one sticky situation to get out of.

That came in the sixth, when Midland (19-12) had a walk, a stolen base and another walk with two outs. Swinton got Austin Smith to pop out foul to Bryce Houser, with Houser doing a nice job of locating the backstop and making the catch.

'At the beginning, my offspeed wasn't really working,” Swinton said. 'Picking that up, I think, was key in the later innings because they always catch on to my fastball after the first couple of innings. That helped a lot. Just trying to pound the zone and let my fielders help me. That was big, a big win.”

Sixth-ranked Lisbon moved on as well, disposing of Easton Valley, 11-0, in six innings. Jake Jennett's two-run home run to left field ended the game via mercy rule.

Austin Krob also had a two-run homer for the Lions (28-5), who play Wednesday night at Durant against either Calamus-Wheatland (24-10).

'You're always going to have the playoff yips at the beginning of the game,” said Lisbon Coach Travis Bennett. 'I was like ‘Fellas, you're going to be a little nervous, you're going to be a little stiff those first couple of innings. You'll get over it, and we'll be fine.' ... You start to press and start to try too much, that's why baseball's such a tough sport.”

Sophomore Cobe Siebrecht allowed just two hits to get the pitching win. He also helped himself out with a two-run double in the fifth.

Easton Valley, hampered by several errors, retired at 9-19.

'I went out knowing I could take them down on the mound, so I did my best to do that,” Siebrecht said. 'I threw a lot of fastballs. I normally throw curveballs and stuff, threw one changeup tonight, and I hit the kid, so I didn't throw another one. My curveball was OK, didn't work as well as I wanted it to, so I stuck with mostly fastballs. I let my fielders work a lot, try to throw strikes. I know I don't strike out a lot of kids, so I try and throw a lot of strikes. We've got great (defense).”

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