COLUMBIA, Mo. – Jack Leiter makes a habit of being stingy on the hill and spotless on the scoreboard.
Vanderbilt’s second right-hand man threw seven hitless innings on Friday-evening in the Commodores’ 11-3 victory over Missouri – after throwing a nine-inning no-hitter against South Carolina last Saturday.
The scary part? Leiter said he didn’t even think he had his “A” material in his last two starts.
“Today I didn’t have all my pitches exactly where I wanted them to be, and I find that encouraging for me,” he said on SportsCenter Friday night. “There are always things to work on, and that’s the nice thing about pitching.”
The son of former big league pitcher Al Leiter is ESPN’s number 2 MLB draft player. The sophomore struckout 10 batters and walked Missouri for two. He hasn’t allowed a hit since giving up two in the fifth inning against Oklahoma State on March 13 – a period of 16 2/3 innings.
Leiter said he understood manager Tim Corbin’s decision to retire him on Friday, despite being two innings away from his second consecutive no-hitter, and described their conversation ahead of the eighth inning as “fairly friendly”.
When asked what Corbin said to him, Leiter told SportsCenter, “It was, ‘Good job, I’m looking forward to you here in the long run, it’s been a long season, it’s still early in the season.” And I understood it completely. Of course I was tired, you are always tired and you are always looking to go more. Of course I wanted to throw the whole game. But I understood. “
Leiter is 6-0 with a 0.25 ERA, 59 strikeouts and 13 walks in six starts (36 innings) this season. He has only one earned run and seven hits allowed.
Leiter, 20, struckout 16 batters in the 5-0 victory over South Carolina last week while retiring his last 27 batters after walking the game.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first pick in the draft this year, followed by the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.
Leiter’s teammate, Kumar Rocker, son of former NFL defender Tracy Rocker, is No. 3 in ESPN’s latest MLB draft rankings. The junior righty improved to 6-0 with an 0.73 ERA after giving up two runs – one earned – and five hits with five strikeouts and two walks for six innings in a 10-2 win over Missouri on Thursday evening.
This report uses information from The Associated Press.