Baseball, Women's Lacrosse Off to Fast Starts

How's this for starting off with a bang? A no-hitter and a record-breaking win over a Mid-Atlantic Prep League rival have highlighted Mercersburg's spring athletics season to date.

The defending Pennsylvania Independent Schools state-champion Blue Storm baseball team is 4–2, following a doubleheader sweep of Lawrenceville and a no-hitter by Christian Binford ’11 (left) in a 3–0 shutout of Martinsburg April 9. Chris Sintetos ’08 homered in the victory.

Binford, of Hagerstown, Maryland, is the first Blue Storm pitcher since Josh Edgin '06 to toss a no-no. (Edgin now pitches at Ohio State.)

Binford has yet to surrender a run and allowed just two hits in his first 12 innings of varsity work; the Mercersburg staff as a whole took an 18-inning scoreless streak into an April 12 doubleheader at Hill, which the Storm split with the Rams. (Tom Timoney ’09 fanned 12 Lawrenceville hitters in an 11–0 blanking April 6; Chris Freeland ’08 hit a grand slam in the first inning of a 17–4 win over Hill.)

"Christian pitched a beautiful game [against Martinsburg]," Head Coach Karl Reisner said. "He was composed and in charge. It was a truly amazing performance for anyone, but for a ninth grader to pitch that well against a quality team in his first start ever is simply mind-boggling."

The team's next home game is an April 22 contest against Notre Dame Academy (4:30 p.m.).

Not to be outdone, the Blue Storm women's lacrosse team is 4–1 on the year. Included among the victories is an April 5 win over Lawrenceville, which is the first win over the Big Red in the program's history. The team scored 18 or more goals in three of its first four contests, and returns home to face Central Dauphin April 17 (4:15 p.m.).

Keep up with all of Mercersburg's spring sports action.