Former Wahoo Mike Vasil Comes Up Just Shy of No-Hitter in Triple-A Gem
Mike Vasil appears to be well on his way to becoming the latest Virginia baseball alum to be called up to the big leagues. The former Cavalier pitcher delivered the best performance of his professional baseball career on Tuesday night, taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning in a dazzling performance.
Vasil's bid for a no-hit was disrupted by a single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth that ended his night, but Vasil still came away with his longest and most impressive start of his professional career. In eight innings pitched, Vasil gave up zero earned runs on one hit and two walks and posted seven strikeouts to lead the Syracuse Mets, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, to a 3-0 road win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Tuesday night.
The near no-hitter came in Vasil's ninth appearance at the Triple-A level. In his second full season playing professional ball, the 23-year-old righty had a strong start with the Mets' Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, and was called up to the Syracuse Mets on June 12th. This season, Vasil is 3-3 with a 4.52 ERA in 19 starts, none better than Tuesday night's spectacular showing.
In three years at Virginia, Vasil appeared in 34 games, 32 of which were starts. In his third and final season at UVA in 2021, Vasil went 7-5 with a 4.52 ERA and ranked fifth in the ACC in strikeouts looking (33), second in starts (16), seventh in wins (7), and 10th in innings pitched (81.2). After helping the Cavaliers reach their fifth College World Series, Vasil was selected by the New York Mets with the 232nd overall pick in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. A little over two years later, Vasil finds himself as the one of the most promising pitching prospects in the minor leagues and he was selected to participate in the All-Star Futures Game in early July.
With the New York Mets struggling through a disappointing season, currently sitting at 51-62 overall and 21 games back in the NL East, it could be nearly time for the organization to give Vasil the call of a lifetime. Vasil is currently the fourth-ranked pitcher in the Mets' prospect rankings on MLB.com and No. 12 overall. If Vasil was to make the leap to the majors, he would be the third former Cavalier to make his Major League debut this season, joining Andrew Abbott (Cincinnati Reds) and Zack Gelof (Oakland Athletics).
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