By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

GRETNA – Cody McMurry hurled a no-hitter on Monday night for St. Charles-based Townsend Homes as it won for the fourth time this season, downing Holy Cross-based Ponstein’s 6-1 in a combined First and Second District game at Mel Ott Park.

Nobody was all that sure that Monday night’s contest would take place as scheduled, not with intermittent rain and lightning falling from LaPlace to the Westbank.

But the Townsend Homes faithful that made the trip from LaPlace were certainly glad to have done so at night’s end.

So was McMurry (2-1), who pitched the no hitter only a week after finishing his first ever complete game.

“I didn’t really know I had one going until the fifth inning or so,” said McMurry. “I was in the zone. One of my teammates spilled it to me, and then I had to forget about it again.

“I don’t know how I did that, but you just get into that mode and don’t look at the scoreboard.”

McMurry walked three and hit a batter, but was otherwise flawless. He struck out 10, and when Ponstein’s made contact, it rarely was threatening.

“He had a great prep season for us and you’re seeing him continue it,” said Townsend Homes coach Paul Waguespack.

Despite the no hitter, Ponstein’s had ample chances to get rolling, and even took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Blake Toscano and Kyle Gardner led off the game by reaching on a walk and error, respectively. Ryan Deemes put the run across via a sacrifice ground out, but McMurry struck out two batters in the inning to escape with no further damage.

It was the first of three occasions that Ponstein’s would put its first two runners on, courtesy of walks or errors. But each time, McMurry bared down.

“He kept his composure, the biggest thing about it all,” said Waguespack.

Townsend Homes (4-2) made its move in the fourth after Mackey Cortez’s leadoff triple. Brady Hitt fired a line drive to first for the first out, but Shane McNeil bunted for a single and an RBI to tie the game. Dustin Zimmer launched a double to deep centerfield to make it 2-1. He’d steal third, and with two outs Chad McNeil singled for an RBI.

Shane McNeil followed that up in the fifth inning with a towering two-run home run to left that followed a Hitt single.

Townsend Homes added one more run on a pair of Ponstein’s errors in the seventh.

“It was a little sample of all we can do,” said Waguespack. “We hit a home run, hit one off the wall, played some small ball, and for the most part played defense. We’ll have to just continue doing all these things, because our goal is to get to Kirsch-Rooney and that (Southeast) regional.