HOUSTON, Texas – It had been 320 days since any team had thrown a pitch at any level of a regular season NCAA college baseball game due to the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, and its continued impact. It had been even longer – 326 days – between pitches for the Arkansas Tech baseball team, but on Friday morning at 10 a.m. central time inside Minute Made Park in Houston, Texas, the Wonder Boys ended that streak and delivered the first pitch of the 2021 season.
 
The historical footnote of the pitcher to deliver that pitch was the Wonder Boys' junior right-hander, Patrick Miner. Making his first collegiate start, Miner fired in his pitch to his batterymate, Gabriel Garcia, and then the home plate umpire, Michael Garcia (no relation), signaled for a called strike.
 
With the weight of the moment passed, Miner quickly retired the St. Mary's leadoff batter two pitches later and notched his first strikeout of the season. Miner then retired the side in order to bring the Wonder Boys (0-1) to the plate for the first time in 2021.
 
It was a quiet first time at the plate for the Wonder Boys as they were also retired in order.
 
Solid pitching continued to prevail for both teams over the next two innings. Through the first three innings, St. Mary's was not able to do any damage against Miner as they did not even get a man on base. The Wonder Boys, however, did notch a pair of hits with a two-out double in the second inning by Kandon Bennett and a leadoff single in the third by Garcia.
 
Nothing would come of the hits, however, as the Rattlers (1-0) starter, Connor Schmidt, got a strikeout to end the second and quickly erased the Garcia leadoff knock by inducing a groundball double play to the ensuing batter and then registered another inning-ending strikeout.
 
With Miner cruising through three innings, he ran into trouble in the fourth. After retiring the leadoff batter, Miner was quickly faced with a bases loaded situation following consecutive singles and a walk. The Rattlers were then able to push across the first run of the game thanks to a bases loaded walk. They then picked up another run on an infield RBI single. Two batters later, the Rattlers doubled their lead to 4-0 on a two-RBI single to left field. On that play, however, the Wonder Boys would get out of the inning on an outfield assist by Stormy Taylor, who gunned out the St. Mary's runner trying to go from first-to-third.
 
The Wonder Boys would get a baserunner on in the fourth thanks to a one-out walk but stranded him at second.
 
In the fifth, sophomore Mason Griffin came on in relief of Miner, who aside from the fourth inning, pitched extremely well in his first collegiate start. Griffin would go on to strikeout the side for his season debut.
 
After a quiet bottom of the fifth inning, Griffin returned to the mound for the sixth inning, but was quickly relieved following a pair of walks to open the frame. Shelby Quiggins was the reliever and after he issued a walk to the first man he faced to load the bases with no outs, he was able to avoid any damage thanks to a strikeout and a line drive double play to end the inning.
 
Escaping that bases loaded jam in the field carried over to the bats as the Wonder Boys quickly loaded the bases with no outs themselves in the bottom of the sixth. Briley Harlan led off that inning with a hit-by-pitch. That was then followed by a pinch-hit single down the third base line by Elijah Boyer and a single through the right side of the infield by Trace Maddux.
 
The Wonder Boys would only push across one run, however, as Garrett Crews hit a one-out sacrifice fly that chased home Harlan.
 
That missed opportunity was compounded a half inning later as the Rattlers' bats came alive and scored six runs on six hits to take a 10-1 lead.
 
In the bottom of the eight, the Wonder Boys would rally with two outs for a pair of runs. The rally was sparked by a double to right-centerfield off the bat of Evan Hafley. After reaching second, Hafley was pinch ran for by Ommar Jackson. Landon Lord then pinch hit in the next spot and doubled in the opposite gap to left-centerfield to score Jackson. Josh Detweiler then pinch hit and reached on a fielding error by the St. Mary's first baseman. On that play, Lord advanced to third. A wild pitch then advanced Detweiler to second and scored Lord to bring the game its final score of 10-3.
 
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to play the Houston Winter Invitational host-institution and No. 5-ranked Central Missouri on Saturday evening. First-pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.