No-hitter sparks Top Speed series sweep

As series nears the playoffs, Daniel Tolano throws a no-hitter for Top Speed.|

The Top Speed baseball team is rapidly running to the end of two months of exceptional college baseball at St. Vincent High School.

The Top Speed team, composed of quality collegiate players from around the country, has just eight games left before starting Golden State Collegiate Baseball League playoffs on July 26.

Going into the final regular-season games, Top Speed has an outstanding 35-3 record. According to Collegiate Summer Baseball, Top Speed is ranked No. 6 nationally among collegiate summer teams.

Included in the Top Speed record is a seven-inning no-hitter thrown by Daniel Tolano, a senior at Tennessee Wesleyan, against the California Bees in the first game of a doubleheader last Saturday.

Tolano absolutely dominated the Bees, striking out 14 and walking just one in a 16-0 victory.

Several scouts at the game played at St. Vincent, clocked his fastball at 90-92 mph.

Top Speed made pitching life easy for its hurler, breaking the game open with 10 runs in the third inning.

Outfielder Ben Rhodes had a huge hitting game for Top Speed, going 3-for-5 with two home runs. He scored three runs and knocked in five.

The win was part of a five-game weekend sweep of the Bees by the Petaluma-based team. Unlike in many series this summer when Top Speed simply outbelted opponents, the Bees were subdued by strong Top Speed pitching.

In the Friday series opener, Colin Lacey, Felipe Gonzalez and Ben Hargrove combined for a three-hitter in a 6-2 win.

Lacey did the majority of the work, throwing seven innings and giving up the three hits, along with two runs. He walked just one and whiffed 12. Gonzalez and Hargrove each worked a hitless inning, and each struck out two.

Brian Ray Jr. and Vincent Volpatti both homered for Top Speed.

In the second game on Saturday following Tolano’s no-hitter, five Top Speed pitchers worked to win a 5-4 decision, with the Petaluma team scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh to pull out the win. Greg Duncan, David Smallwood, Michael Benz, Nicholas Cole and Hargrove all pitched for Top Speed.

Ray left the field for his seventh homer of the season.

Justin Demary pitched a two-hitter to win Sunday’s first game, 4-2. He walked just three and struck out 11 in pitching all seven innings.

Top Speed had just seven hits in that game, with Drew Downing collecting two of them.

Top Speed concluded the series sweep with a 2-1 win in the second game on Sunday. Zac Burke and Braden Chambers combined for a two-hitter in that game, with Burke allowing the Bees’ run and two hits in four innings with three walks and five whiffs, while Chambers pitched three hitless innings, walking one and striking out four.

The pitchers made two Top Speed runs in the fourth stand good for the win.

Outfielder Robert Zurawski had two hits and drove in the only Top Speed runs with his seventh homer of the season.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.