Single-A club pays homage to Rangers with unis ... then tosses a no-hitter!
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Baseball history is beginning to become an annual tradition for the Hickory Crawdads.
A quartet of Single-A Hickory arms combined to toss the affiliate’s third no-hitter in two seasons on Saturday night. AJ Russell, Geury Rodriguez, J.D. McReynolds and Jormy Nivar pieced together the milestone in a 5-0 Crawdads win over Kannapolis at L.P. Frans Stadium, all while the club paid tribute to "all things Texas," including Rangers-inspired uniforms.
Russell started for the Rangers’ affiliate and finished 3 1/3 innings before turning the game over to the bullpen. Texas’ No. 3 prospect retired all 10 batters he faced, tallying a scoreless outing for the fifth time in 10 appearances this season between Hickory and a fortuitous appearance with High-A Hub City. The 6-foot-6 right-hander struck out five hitters with a game-high 12 swings-and-misses.
Texas selected Russell in the second round of the 2025 Draft out of Tennessee. His profile features a 70-grade fastball (best among all Rangers prospects), accompanied by a slider and changeup. Russell had a lifetime 2.70 career ERA in 70 collegiate innings for the Volunteers. He’s wrapped up his first 10 professional outings with a 3.42 ERA in 23 2/3 innings.
Following Russell’s exit, Rodriguez covered four outs and struck out a hitter, though he issued four walks in that span. McReynolds took the ball for another 1 1/3 innings and earned three of his four outs by the K. Earning the win, Nivar carried the final three innings with a pair of strikeouts and sealed the milestone when Kannapolis’ Javier Mogollon (White Sox) grounded out to short to end the game.
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The no-hitter is the first of 2026 for Hickory after the affiliate produced a pair of them in under two weeks last season on April 8 against Augusta and April 18 against Charleston. The Crawdads have now thrown seven combined no-hitters since 2009 and five since 2022, another season where Hickory had two in one year.