NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Vanderbilt righthanded Jack Leiter, ESPN’s No. 2 MLB draft prospect, threw a no-hitter in the Commodores’ 5-0 victory over South Carolina on Saturday.
Leiter walked in the first inning before retiring 27 consecutive outs. He finished with a career-high 16 strikeouts when the No. 2 Commodores improved to 15-2, 2-0 in the SEC.
Leiter was efficient, placing 81 punches in 124 pitches, causing eight flyouts and three groundouts, and improved to 5-0.
“Of course, walking the first man out isn’t something you want to do,” Leiter said in his post-game interview on SEC Network. “But I would say, it wasn’t until the fifth, sixth and seventh inning that it started to feel different from other games.”
The son of former MLB pitcher Al Leiter, Jack mainly works in the low-90s on his fastball, using a knockout plus curveball as his best secondary throw, traits that lure several scouts into his games.
And it all worked against the Gamecocks on Saturday (11-6, 0-2), who lost their sixth consecutive game and didn’t get a hit for the first time since 1990.
“Nobody said anything, it was quite an unspoken thing, I just did what I did in every inning,” Leiter said of his routine between innings. “I would just sit down and organize my thoughts.
“I really always try to say ‘next roll, next roll, next roll’, and just stay in the moment a little bit.”
Tate Kolwyck hit a pair of two-run home runs for Vanderbilt in their third straight win.
Leiter is one of two Vanderbilt pitchers who are high on the radar of MLB teams. Kumar Rocker, also a right-handed, is number 3 in ESPN’s latest MLB draft rankings.
Saturday’s win was Vanderbilt’s first no-hitter in the regular season since 1971. Rocker threw a no-hitter in the 2019 NCAA Super Regionals vs. Duke.