by Ray D. Enzé, Aurora baseball blogger

Duluth, Minnesota: August 9, 2023 – The day began with the Duluth Warriors – the surprising Duluth Warriors, tied for first in the Great Lakes Division; tied with the perennial division winning Crystal Lake ‘Gnats. The Borealis have had a hand in that resurgence, shipping catcher Miguel Gálvez there a few years back (2020) – a catcher they once again wish they had with Jesús Negrete’s devastating injury the night before.

The day began with Martín Francisco – ‘Sawmill’ to most of the baseball world, holding a 7-7 record and a 4.42 ERA. With a WHIP of 1.37, strikeouts down, and walks up, the Borealis were uncertain where to go and what to do with ‘Sawmill’ – and then last week Gunner MacGruder goes down for a 14-month stint and, suddenly, Aurora needs ‘Sawmill’ to regain his old form – and pronto.

Despite the poor showing at Palm Springs in his last start (3.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 K in picking up that 7^th loss), Aurora took advantage of an off day to move him up a spot in the rotation – into Gunner’s spot, to accommodate for rookie Eric Perkin’s joining the rotation. It was a cool, somewhat blustery night at Doyle Buhl Stadium as Warriors starter Paul Norris took the mound.

Norris has pitched much like Francisco has thus far in 2023 – minus about 10 years, coming into the game with a 6-4 mark and a 4.20 ERA. Early on it showed. After getting Pedro Ferringo on a swinging strike three, Mike Hale hammered a line shot off a 1-2 pitch, down the right field line for an opposite field HR – the second straight game Hale homered in the first inning, and his 6^th of the year. Paul Carlisle and Mike Britt both followed with singles off 2-strike counts, Britt’s sending Carlisle around to third, where he’d score on a groundball to first baseman Jeff Prat of Nick Giles bat. Just like that, the Borealis had staked ‘Sawmill’ to an early 2-0 lead.

The one-time Aurora Ace plowed through the first, battling Flint Butler a bit as he fouled off a couple of tough pitches before striking out. Then Aurora would put up a threat in the second, with Gabe McIntyre and River Pope singling to lead the ining off, but Ferringo, Hale and Carlisle made out swinging at pitches too early in the count.

Through the second, third and fourth innings, Francisco and Norris exchanged 1-2-3 innings with little fan fare – though Joe Kenney and Mike Harris hit back-to-back balls into the deep reaches of the park, only to be denied by Hale and Pope; a mini-pitchers duel breaking out in the game. Then in the fifth inning, with Aurora looking to build on their lead with the heart of the order due up, Paul Carlisle crushed a full-count pitch high and deep down the rightfield line for a 430’, towering HR, adding to the Aurora lead, making it 3-0. Giles would add a 2-out double, but that would really be all the offense Aurora would muster on this day.

Meanwhile, in the bottom of the fifth, ‘Sawmill’ had his first moment of trouble. Gálvez worked ‘Sawmill’ to a 3-0 count before crushing a ball down the left field line, but Pope made a racing, leaping catch in the corner for the first out of the inning. Prat would battle in his following AB, working a full count before grounding out to McIntyre at second. By the time the 6^th inning ended with Francisco getting three outs on 8 pitches, it became clear that both pitcher and teammates were well aware of what was happening – Francisco walked to the far bench of the dugout, while everyone else huddled together at the near-end, not an eye peeking in ‘Sawmill’s direction, giddy expressions across the board, Francisco just staring at the ground.

In the 7^th, Francisco faced the top of the Warrior line-up for the third time – always a tricky point in a game, but tonight, he breezed through León Valentín, Butler and Andrés Hernández, and the 8^th passed by even more quickly as Gálvez, Prat and McGuire went down on 5 pitches – though McGuire’s slow roller to short that Britt cut off and made a nifty play on stopped many a heart. Thus the night was set-up for the bottom of the 9^th with Martín Francisco having not allowed a baserunner – by hit, by walk, by error. After 8 innings, he was perfect.

On August 19, 2017 Darryl ‘Quagmire’ Lewis threw a no-hitter for Aurora v. Tempe. He allowed 2 walks. On July 28, 2013 Bill ‘Slappy’ Bradley no hit the Crystal Lake Sandgnats – a little birthday present that day for the GM. He allowed 2 walks. Those had been the only no-hitters in Aurora’s rich pitching history. There had been 35 no-hitters in the PEBA’s 16 ½ year history – and three of those had been Perfect-O’s.

Gil Sterling was Francisco’s first obstacle in the 9^th and on a 1-2 pitch he got him to fly out to Pope in left – who made yet another running catch on a ball that looked like trouble. That brought Joe Kenny to the plate. The young Warrior, a one-time Aurora free agent discovery who was traded with Gálvez for ‘Zoom Zoom’ Barker, worked the count full – only the fourth, 3-ball count of the day for ‘Sawmill’, before striking out swinging. The Aurora dugout was bouncing on their feet along the dugout fencing. Duluth fans, eschewing loyalty for history, on their feet, cheering each pitch, and to the plate came Mike Harris.

Harris has struggled to stay above the ‘Mendoza Line’ all year, and if ‘Sawmill’ were to finish off what now was a Perfect Game, no better man was at the plate. Harris would work the count to 2-2, and on the fifth pitch of the at bat he hit a lazy fly to Carlisle in right – and the chaos began. As Martín turned to face the plate, he was being lifted in the air by Rusty Butler, into the air of celebration, his teammates leaping and slapping congratulatory ‘fives’ on his back, his legs, anywhere they could lay a little ‘skin on skin’.

And with that, a beleaguered pitcher, whose career was already destined to be part of our great Leagues history, achieved a feat now accomplished just four times in League history. He joins the ranks of Bakersfield’s Fred Benjamin (9/25/16 v. Yuma), then-Charleston’s Connor ‘Blackjack’ Hurst (6/3/18 v. New Orleans) and ex-Yuman Gunner MacGruder (5/4/20 v. Reno – making the Yumans the only team to be on both sides of Perfection) as the only Perfect Pitchers in PEBA history. On August 9^th, 2023 – for one night, ‘Sawmill’ was Perfect.