D-backs farmhand Allen tosses no-hitter

With two outs in the first inning of his start for Class A South Bend on Saturday, D-backs farmhand Brad Allen issued a five-pitch walk to West Michigan's Dean Green.

No player reached base against him for the rest of the night.

Allen, an undrafted 24-year-old right-hander, twirled a no-hitter to lift South Bend to a 2-0 victory in a Midwest League contest at West Michigan's Fifth Third Ballpark. He gave up just the one walk while striking out nine and throwing 68 of his 97 pitches for strikes.

Allen entered the game with a 6-6 record and 5.10 ERA in 17 starts for the Silver Hawks, although he had put together some other dominant outings. He gave up one run on two hits in a complete game against West Michigan on May 12 and allowed only one hit over seven scoreless innings against Fort Wayne on July 2.

West Michigan did not threaten the no-hitter on many occasions. Silver Hawks third baseman Brandon Drury made a nice backhanded stop on a grounder down the line in the fifth, and center fielder Breland Almadova made a running catch on the warning track in left-center in the eighth.

Leading off the ninth, the Whitecaps' Adolfo Reina sent a liner down the left-field line that landed just foul. Allen proceeded to strike out Reina, then got a groundout from Harold Castro. Jared Reaves popped out to second baseman Andrew Velazquez for the final out.

Allen took a long road to his history-making performance.

The native of Geneva, Ill., played college ball at Elgin (Ill.) Community College, Northern Illinois and Arkansas State. His professional career began with the Rockford RiverHawks of the independent Frontier League in 2011 and continued the next year with the Florence Freedom of the same league.

The D-backs picked him up before Spring Training this year and gave him his first chance in affiliated pro ball.