On This Day: Strasburg's No-Hitter

On May 8, 2009, Aztec Hall of Fame pitcher Stephen Strasburg threw a no-hitter in his final collegiate home start against Air Force at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Following the season, Strasburg received numerous accolades, including the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award and National Pitcher of the Year honors from the College Baseball Foundation. He was chosen No. 1 overall in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals. Below is a recap from that historic night.

San Diego State University junior Stephen Strasburg added to his credentials as one of the premier pitchers in the nation as he threw the first no-hitter of his collegiate career in SDSU's 5-0 win over Air Force at Tony Gwynn Stadium. An all-time record crowd of 3,337 fans witnessed the contest which marked the right-hander's final home appearance of the 2009 season.

Strasburg retired the first nine hitters he faced, seven via strikeout, before giving up a leadoff walk to Nathan Carter to start the fourth. 

The Falcons' only other base runner on the night came on a second leadoff walk, this time to K.J. Randhawa to open the sixth inning, but Strasburg struck out the side to erase the threat.

Strasburg (11-0) retired the final 12 batters he faced, striking out the side in the ninth to close out the contest.

The Aztecs (32-18, 11-8 MWC) finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth inning as Jomel Torres doubled with two out and Easton Gust followed with an RBI single through the left side to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead.

SDSU added a pair of runs in the next inning when Pat Colwell scored from third base on a throwing error, and Brandon Meredith scored on a two-out single to left by Mitch Blackburn.

The Aztecs got their final two runs in the eighth on back-to-back singles by Meredith and Erik Castro, a double to left by Cory Vaughn and a safety squeeze off the bat of Blackburn.

Meredith, who had a pair of singles, was the lone Aztec to record more than one hit in the contest while Blackburn finished with a single and two runs batted in.

Following his no-hitter, Strasburg was named the Pro-Line National Player of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball. In addition, he was selected as the National Player of the Week and was named to the College Baseball Foundation's weekly National All-Star Lineup as well as the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week.

It marked the fifth Louisville Slugger honor and second NCBWA award in 2009 for Strasburg. It was also the eighth time in 12 weeks that season that he was listed on the College Baseball Foundation's National All-Star Lineup.