Bow pitcher Nate Kiah carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning Thursday. An inconsequential single in the final inning ended the bid but it didn’t dampen the mood after Bow advanced to the second round of the Division II playoffs.

No. 7 Bow jumped out to an early lead, tacked on a few more and held the No. 10 Pelham offense in check throughout the day in a 5-0 win. It was Bow’s sixth straight win.

“He was really the talk of the day, I would say,” Bow coach Ben Forbes said about Kiah. “You know, unfortunately, he gave up the no-hitter in the top of the seventh, but a complete game in under 85 pitches, that’s a phenomenal performance out of him.” 

Bow jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. With bases loaded, a sacrifice bunt from Zachary Cross drove in Owen Webber and Luke Wilke. Then, Jake Reardon hit a fly ball to right field that brought Cam Evans to the plate. 

Referring to the Falcon’s early lead, Forbes said, “We got a couple breaks and got a couple of guys on base, and next thing you know we strung some stuff together. So after that, it was just about trying to get on base and make things happen.” 

Pelham’s offense gained some momentum by the third inning, muscling through long at-bats against Kiah. Aiden Patten made it to first off a walk, and Justin Desmarias fouled so many times that Bow players in the dugout had to trek into the hill behind the ball field to retrieve lost balls. But as parents cheered and teammates yelled, “Win the battle!” from the sidelines, Kiah hung on to strike out Desmarias. 

Bow increased its lead in the bottom of the fourth. Python pitcher Nolan Drew walked Dillan Abbate, who stole second base and then scored off a ground ball from designated hitter Owen Cray. An RBI single from senior Wilke brought the score to 5-0.

Forbes highlighted Wilke as one of the most “notable seniors” of the game, saying, “Our centerfielder had a couple big hits today.” He also noted senior shortstop Evans’ defensive performance.  

Despite the win, Forbes hoped to see bigger at-bats from Bow’s offense. “We didn’t quite hit the ball the way I’d hoped we would consistently throughout the game,” he said. “But, you know, we were able to make some things happen, take advantage of some mistakes and get as many as we needed for today.” 

Bow will face No. 2 Hollis-Brookline in the quarter-finals Saturday afternoon, and Forbes hopes to see the team play “some supremely clean baseball.”

“We have to pitch as well as we did today. We can’t make errors on defense and we’ve gotta hit the ball a little bit better, execute small ball a little bit better,” he said. “It’ll be a tough road from here on out.”

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