HOUSTON — Brenham, Texas, is about an hour north of Minute Maid Park.
It’s a short drive, one the extended family of Oklahoma Sunday starting pitcher Dane Acker made to watch Acker throw against college baseball powerhouse LSU.
Outside, it was 70 degrees and extremely humid with a threat of rain in the afternoon. This forced the roof to be closed Sunday inside the home of the Houston Astros, where it was also 70 degrees in the controlled climate of Minute Maid—perfect baseball weather, especially to pitch in.
The game was quick, lasting two hours and 15 minutes, but it was quick for a reason.
One that was more perfect than the ballpark, the setting and the weather which the game was being played in.
“I can’t stop shaking,” said Casey Acker after the game, dad of Oklahoma pitcher Dane Acker. “At the beginning of the game, I was so nervous and my hope was for him to come out and have a good performance and at the end of the game, it was completely the opposite—had a good performance and now finish it off …”
Dane Acker came out for the ninth-inning a little more delayed than he had all day. He walked slowly out of the dugout, looking down and then took over the mound that had been his haven.
LSU was held hitless for eight innings and with minimal hard contact off the right-hander.
Acker got the first hitter in the ninth to strike out swinging. He forced the second to pop out after getting behind 3-1 in the count. Then, behind again in the count 3-1 to the third hitter due up.
The Tigers two-hole hitter Alex Millazo put the ball in play on the 3-1 pitch. A ground ball to the short stop.
“Hold your breathe and just hope it gets there in time,” said Susan Acker after the game about the moment the ball was put in play, the mother of Dane. “We’ve done this for so many years and hopefully, finally all coming together.”
It did.
The Ackers, who are superstitious like the rest of the baseball community, did the same thing every inning. No one uttered the word ‘no-hitter’. No one changed a thing, and it paid off.
Dane Acker threw the first complete game no-hitter for Oklahoma baseball since 1989 in the Sooners huge 1-0 win over LSU. He struck out 11 hitters, walked one and hit two others with a pitch.
“Completely excited for him,” Casey said. “He’s worked so hard, so hard to get to where he is at and he’s got a lot of talent and a lot of skill, but to put it all together like that with the team that he’s got. Outstanding.”
It wasn’t easy for Dane Acker, either.
He got even or behind to 14 of the 29 batters he faced, including the final two LSU hitters of the game. Only one of those was able to reach base.
“I was really trying to step off,” Acker said about his mindset when he’d get behind. “We talk a lot about our focus and pitch-to-pitch, so if I fell behind I would just try to take a long stroll around the mound, rub up the ball and tell myself to pound the zone. Again, if they hit they hit it.”
Acker went into the ninth-inning just over 100 pitches. It’s only his third start of the 2020 season, but his head coach had no qualms about letting him go out for that final inning with a chance at history.
“I kept thinking about what Coach (Augie) Garrido always told me, ‘You can’t take the moment away from the kid,'” said head coach Skip Johnson. “You just can’t take the moment away from the kid. That is what was so special for him. He works hard at it and think it was a great moment for him.”
His catcher, Justin Mitchell, allowed him to finish the no-hitter off in the ninth inning after hitting a solo home run in the top of eighth—the only hit in the entire game by both teams. Mitchell, who has improved tremendously behind the plate from last season, has taken a bigger role as Oklahoma’s field manager alongside Brady Lindsly.
Mitchell caught Acker in warmups. Walked back with him from the bullpen before the game.
Was there anything different about his right-hander heading into Sunday’s game against LSU?
“No, that’s Dane Acker,” Mitchell said. “He attacks. He’s not scared to throw it in there and he’s going to challenge you.”
After Brandon Zaragoza made the throw to first to complete the no-hitter, Acker was mobbed on the mound. Bench players flooded from the dugout and pitchers from the bullpen sprinted in to heap all the praise towards him.
Acker then enjoyed a two-bucket gatorade bath while getting interviewed by the broadcast producing the game. He finished the interview and made his way over behind home plate where he spoke with the Shriners Hospitals for Children patient that spent time with the Oklahoma baseball team prior to the event.
Awaiting him near the Sooners dugout was his extended family who made the trip down. Acker jumped into the camera well, hugged his mom first. Shook his dads hand next and gave him a hug. Then his grandparents after that.
Acker had been playing ball in the Houston area his whole life. First due to growing up only an hour away, then going to Rice out of high school and transferring to San Jacinto College in the Houston area after his freshman year.
The city, the ballpark, the weather, the defense, the home run, the no-hitter—it could only be described in one way.
“As a baseball dad that’s been through the select ball, the club ball and the sacrifices and seeing that—it’s years and years that come together,” Casey said. “And knowing what the family has gone through and the sacrifices that they’ve made, it pales in comparison to real life scenarios, but you want your kid to succeed and having that one two-hour window on a Sunday … it brings it all home. It’s perfect.”
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