The amazing story of Nick Petree continued Friday night as the sophomore right-hander tossed eight more shutout innings against Evansville to run his streak to 72.1 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. He allowed three hits, struck out nine and walked three batters in the 2-0 win.
As I wrote in a previous article, college baseball doesn’t hold official records for this category, but it appears he has almost doubled the previous non-official record held by current Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton when he went 47.1 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run for Tennessee back in 1994.
The streak started on March 9 against SIU Edwardsville and has now spanned 10 starts. Helton, for the record, did it over the span of 25 appearances. Petree is 8-1 during the streak, with his lone loss coming when two runs were scored on errors in a 2-1 loss to Bradley on April 6. Over his 72.1 innings, he has allowed just 40 hits, 21 walks and has struck out 82 batters. The pressure, and the grind of the season, doesn’t seem to be slowing him down either. Over his last four starts, he has allowed 15 hits while striking out 39 batters over 29 innings.
On the season, he is now 10-2 with a national best 0.58 ERA, to go along with a 0.95 WHIP and 97 K/29 BB over 93.1 innings. He was also recently added to the list of nominees for The Golden Spikes Award, given out annually to the top collegiate baseball player.
As great as he has been this season, this isn’t exactly a coming out party for him. Red-shirted for the 2010 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, he set school records for wins and innings pitched as a freshman last season going 9-2 with a 2.81 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 81 K/27 BB over 96 innings. He was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and was also a Freshman All-American.
This continues to be an unbelievable individual achievement that isn’t getting enough publicity. He has helped Missouri State to a 34-14 record and a top-30 national ranking, as well. Petree has also surpassed the major league record of 59 consecutive innings set by Orel Hershiser in 1998.
His next game is May 18 against Indiana State in what should be his last regular season game of the year.
