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WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Cooper Cantwell and Haden Branch combined to throw a no-hitter and lead the SWOSU Baseball team to a 1-0 victory over East Central on Friday afternoon at the SWOSU Athletic Complex.
 
Cantwell (2-1) took the hill to start the game and cruised through the ECU lineup with six strikeouts in eight innings of action. The Tigers had to baserunners reach via an error, but neither advanced past second base and he walked off the mound after the top of the eighth inning to a scoreless game.
 
SWOSU struck in the bottom half of the eighth, when Alex Bedard was hit by a pitch and Alex Pimentel singled to give SWOSU two baserunners with one out in the inning. That was when Brooks Red came through with an RBI single into left, which scored Bedard for the go-ahead run.
 
With their new lead, SWOSU turned to Branch to close things out and despite working from behind in each count he sat the Tigers down in order to pick up the save, his second of the year. The Bulldogs pulled off a historic feat on Friday, recording the ninth no-hitter in Great American Conference history and the third to occur during conference play.
 
"When it's cold out there like it was today, you have to go out there and throw a lot of strikes," Cantwell said following the outing. "The most important thing was to stick to the game plan, which was to throw strikes and let my defense go so we can get that win, because that's all that matters."
 
SWOSU improves to 4-4 on the year and they open league play 1-0 with the win. The two teams will conclude the series on Saturday afternoon, playing a doubleheader at noon.