by Francis Ferry, NLN baseball beat writer
June 1, 2037: Aurora, Colorado – It was a pleasant night at Northern Lights Park, the calendar turning to June on The Front Range. 46,814 fans turned out to watch their Borealis – who spent the past two weeks on the road, play their long-time nemesis and rivals, the Bakersfield Bears on a beautiful, clear night, under the stars in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.
The Borealis entered the game with the lead in the Desert Hills, 31-19, while the Bears have clearly fallen on hard times – 16-34 thus far this season, a season removed from their 5th place finish in 2036, which was the worst in team history. Last years team finished 27 GB of Reno, but this year’s club already sits 15 GB of Aurora – already just 2-5 against the Borealis.
And yet, the Bears have talent. Something is amiss, but they still strike a concern in the hearts of the fans – and bring out their best.
Under normal circumstnaces, what the fans were treated to would be described as beautiful – but how we got there? Not so much. Cute? Certainly not pretty. But when the final out was recorded and Brian Clark, Orinosuke Fujii and Yellel Twia finished their nights work, pretty or cute; beautiful or gorgeous, they would find their names in the record books – possessors of a combined no-hitter.
Pat Willis was on the mound for the Bears. The 2034 free-agent signee has slowly watched his numbers slide and currently is looking the most vulnerable of his career – 1-7 with a 5.98 ERA coming into the game and already twice the losing pitcher against Aurora. But over the first couple of innings he mostly matched Clark’s efforts – while ‘Slug’ shut the Bears down in order over the first three frames, Willis allowed lone singles in the first and second inning, but then the 3rd came and Bakersfield’s biggest Achilles Heel raised it’s ugly head – their defense. Over the first five games between the clubs, the Bears had already commited 5 errors, and after Willis got the first two hitters in the third out quickly, 2B Ikki Nakashima booted Angel Silva’s sharply hit ground ball – hit right at him, allowing the speedy Aurora hitter to reach safely. To make matters worse, Jorge Aguilar, playing first, did the same on a hard hit ball tight on the line allowing Jose Aleman to reach safely.
Pat Willis looked disturbed. He looked like a man who has lived this nightmare before – failed by his defense on days he’s pitched well. We won’t go as far as to say he gave in – Willis is a fighter, who the history books will show Aurora was deep in the bidding for his services four-years ago, but he fell behind 3-1 to Raul Munoz, who already had singled in the first, and this time he lined one past Aguilar into right field – Silva racing into score. Then David Simmons found the gap between first and second, for an RBI single and G-Rod would make it a 3-run inning as he lined the ball into right-center for the third hit in the inning. Ruben Ortega, would attack the first pitch he saw, launching it deep into right-center, but as Northern Lights Park often does, Yuji Kichida caught up with at the notch in the wall.
The Bears, to their credit, are fighters. When Clark came out for the fourth and promptly walked Tsuginori Takahashi and Allen Davis – with Tsuginori promptly stealing second and heading to third as Pedro de la Cruz’ throw sailed into the outfield, the Bears looked to be in business with their big slugging catcher, Mauro Mata coming to the plate. Mata took a strike, but then grounded a slow one to Ortega, who flipped it to Aleman for a nifty double-play. Tsuginori scored, but the threat passed.
Aurora would quickly get the run back in the bottom of the inning as with 2-out and a blistering sunset over the Rockies to the west, Francisco Montoya – playing the best ball in this third year wth the club, lined a double down the left field line and ‘Otter’ lining the ball into triples alley – too hard as the ball rebounded off the wall too far, limiting Silva to just a double. Jose Aleman would strike out, thus limiting the damage for Willis.
The game moved into the 6th – and that was when the fans would get riled up against their long-time hero, manager Michel Provost, as after Clark got the first two outs in the 6th, ‘Train Arollin’’ came rollin’ out and pulled Clark after just 90 pitches. You can bet your bottom dollar that Provost never heard boos at Northern Lights as he did on this night. For Clark, he looked upset – for at this point it was no secret what was happening – despite the ‘1’ on the board for the Bears, Aurora’s ace was working on a no-hitter and after a season and change of some erratic starts, Brian Clark was looking to finally grab what has eluded him on more than one occasion. But, alas, not on this night. ‘Chattahoochee’ Fujii came on and as darkness finally descended upon the night Tsuginori lined a ball towards right that Raul Munoz made a diving stab for – and caught, to end the 6th.
Brian Clark would finish with 5.2 IP, no hits, 2 BB, 6 K and an unearned run allowed, and Pat Willis would follow suit in the bottom of the 6th, finding his night over with a 1-out walk to Francisco Montoya. Willis would finish with 5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R – only one earned, 2 BB and 3 K as Alex Vargas came on in relief. Fujii would make short work of the Bears, retiring all four he faced, while Vargas found trouble of his own making in the bottom of the 7th. He would retire Simmons and Rodriguez to start the inning, but a walk to Ortega followed by a scorching double off de la Cruz’ bat that kicked off the wall, allowing Ortega to scoot all the way home – making it 5-1, Aurora.
The ‘Hyena’ came on in the 8th for Aurora, and he would devour the Bears as he closed out the game – five ground outs and a K, and as Tsuginori’s grounder to short found Munoz’ glove the dugout poured onto the field to embrace Twia and de la Cruz on the mound.
It wasn’t pretty – no dominating 9-innings, 10 K game. Clark had 2 BB. There was an error – three in the game. Bakersfield even scored a run. But at the end of the night Aurora had their third no-hitter in franchise history.
Over the previous 31-PEBA seasons, Aurora had had just two no-no’s: ‘Sawmill’ was perfect on the 9th of August in 2023 as Aurora marched towards their third straight Rodriguez Cup, as he struck out 6 Warriors in a 3-0 win at Duluth – Mike Hale’s 1st inning homer was the game winner; then on October 27, 2026 – in the SL Championship Series, once again at Duluth, Edgardo Diaz held the Warriors hitless, walking 3 and striking out 6, a 1-0 win – Paul Carlisle with the lone RBI, in a series Aurora would lose as Duluth captured their first (and only) Rodriguez Cup. And now we add Clark-Fujii-Twia – a third chapter to Aurora’s no-hitter book.
Fun Fact: Sandwiched between the first two Aurora no-no’s was a no-hitter against Aurora – by Duluth! ‘Rainmaker’, who ironically was the starter for Duluth in the Diaz no-hitter (he allowed just 4-hits himself), doing the deed in June of 2025 with 14 K and 3 BB. The lone other no-hitter that Aurora has been involved in was by Palm Springs’ Jose Campos, who struck out 12 in a June 2020 game.
The win moved Aurora to 32-19, with a 3-game lead over the (somewhat) surprising Tempe Apollos, while with the loss, Bakersfield drops to 16-35, and with Yuma on an off day, the Bears dropped to 6th place by half a game, 16 GB of Aurora. That may not end up being all the news out of the Bakersfeld camp, as Bears owner Alfredo Saenz – in just his second season of ownership, was caught on a hot mic in the post-game locker room, suggesting that manager Kumanosuke Oshima – a name Aurora fans know all to well (Aurora manager, 2029-2031), was going to be looking for a new gig. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on that.
