Martensdale-St. Mary's pitcher throws 4th championship game no-hitter ever

DES MOINES - J.D. Nielsen feigned ignorance."I didn't realize it until the end of the game," the Martensdale-St. Mary's pitcher said after he threw the fourth no-hitter in Iowa state tournament championship game history Saturday afternoon. "I had no idea until my teammates told me about it. I just went out and pitched my game and tried to get my team the 'W.'"Martensdale (40-5) won its third consecutive Class 1A title with a 1-0 win over Mason City Newman. Nielsen is the first pitcher to toss a title game no-no since Davenport Assumption's Jason Flach in 1992 (against Decorah).The others were Norway's Greg Brecht (five innings versus Treynor in 1983) and Boone's Jack Mustapha (against Burlington in 1965)."Can't ask for a better feeling," the senior left-hander said. "I feel like it was (my best game). I got pretty tired towards the end, but I just had to push through and do my thing and get a couple more outs."Newman (35-5) got a leadoff from Alex Weber in the seventh inning. He was bunted to second and went to third on a groundout, but Nielsen ended the game with a strikeout swinging of Joe Burgmeier, as Weber peculiarly tried to steal home.M-SM scored its run in the first inning against tough-luck losing pitcher Phillip Lapointe, who threw a two-hitter.