 | Chris Taranto, a former SI Faces in the Crowd athlete, was one of only two high school pitchers to have thrown six consecutive no-hitters. Courtesy of Notre Dame High School |
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| The Two Who Threw Six |
| The only pitchers to have thrown more consecutive high school no-hitters than Colt Molloy are Chris Taranto of Notre Dame (Biloxi, Miss.) and Tom Engle of Fairfield Union (Lancaster, Ohio), who share the record with six. In neither case was it the start of something big: Taranto who set the record in 1961 as a senior, signed with the Houston Colt .45s after graduation, but he was out of baseball by '63 with persistent arm soreness. Engle, a Mets second-round pick in '89, the year he got the six-pack, played eight seasons in the minors, peaking in '95 with Triple A Norfolk. But two Tommy John surgeries ended the righty's career. Engle went back to school, studying broadcast communications at Ohio State, and is now a producer at ESPN, working primarily on golf features and the football edition of College Gameday. Engle says people still ask him about the streak all the time. "As I recall," he says, "it was pretty cool." |
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By Joe Lemire
MEMPHIS HIGH
Memphis, Texas
In the Texas panhandle town of Memphis, with a population of barely 2,000, Colt Molloy began playing T-ball at age three. By the time he started grade school, his throws had enough gusto to bruise the palm of the woman who played catch with him at the day-care center. At age 13 Molloy, who idolizes Nolan Ryan, was so eager to practice that he built a pitching mound in his backyard, exactly to high school specifications. "I spent days trying to get it perfect," says Molloy, whose parents operate a hunting lodge. "I was hauling wheelbarrows halfway across the pasture to my backyard." He became a freshman starter for Memphis High varsity baseball and quarterbacked the football team -- although after practice he would walk to the school's diamond and work on pitching.
All that dedication paid off in his senior baseball season: In his first five starts Molloy was unhittable -- literally. His five consecutive no-hitters set a state record and fell one short of the national high school mark. In those games he walked nine and struck out 64. Says Molloy, who last season was 5-3 with a 1.86 ERA, "I've been blessed this year."
Though his 35-inning no-hit streak ended on April 3 when he gave up a fourth-inning single to Clay Greenwalt of Shamrock High, the good news didn't. The next day the school's athletic director, Jerry Young, brought Molloy into his office and played a voice mail from a New York Yankees scout asking about the pitcher. "Oh, man, my dreams are coming true," said the 5'10", 185-pound Molloy, who with his mid-80s fastball had previously only attracted attention from a few junior colleges. The streak, says Memphis coach Pat Yarbrough, has changed that. "[Recruiters] want to know more about this Molloy kid." Junior college interest has increased, and bigger schools such as Texas State and Hardin-Simmons are now in the mix. Molloy, who has been spotting his pitches better this year for Memphis's 11-0 team, couldn't be happier. "All I've ever talked about is wanting to play baseball."
