Regardless of what level of baseball or softball you talk about, a no-hitter is quite an accomplishment and somewhat rare. A perfect game is even more rare, but a “perfect” perfect game is practically unheard of.

By definition, a no-hitter is exactly that, when a pitcher doesn’t allow a single hit in a ball game. No-hitters can include walks and errors, allowing batters to get on base, but the pitcher never gives up a hit.

A perfect game, is when not only does the pitcher throw a no-hitter, but nobody even reaches base, and the pitcher faces the minimum of three batters per inning, equaling 27 straight put outs in a nine-inning game.

Last Wednesday, Mike Fiers of the Oakland Athletics, threw the second no-hitter of his Major League Baseball career, but this one was very different from the first no-hitter he pitched in 2015, while pitching for the Astros.

First off, he wasn’t even scheduled to pitch that night, but a rotation shuffle on the A’s off day, put Fiers on the mound for the home game against the Cincinnati Reds. He entered the game with a 6.81 ERA, not a stat that suggests this guy could dominate an opponent on any given night. Secondly, the game was almost canceled because of a malfunctioning light bank in left field. Both teams’ managers and general managers met, and after a long delay decided to play the game.

To preserve the no-hitter, a couple of Oakland fielders needed to make spectacular plays. The Reds’ Joey Votto hit a long fly ball to center field in the sixth inning as the A’s Ramon Laureano raced back to the wall, leaped, and grabbed the ball just as it appeared it to be going over, saving a home run.

The other big play, also in the sixth inning, was made by A’s second baseman Jurickson Profar who made a diving catch of a fly ball in shallow right field.

The game took only two hours and 25 minutes to play, and in the end, Oakland had shut out the Reds, 2-0. It was the first no-hitter of the season and the 300th in major league history.

“PERFECT” PERFECT GAME

That same day, a high school softball player in Mahopac, New York, threw a “perfect” perfect game.

What’s that?

That’s when a pitcher not only throws a no-hitter, but strikes out every batter in the game.

Shannon Becker, a sophomore at Mahopac High School, struck out all 21 batters she faced in the seven-inning softball game. Becker is no flash-in-the-pan. Her record following that game was 11-3 with a 0.28 ERA, with 229 strikeouts in 99 innings. Plus, her batting average is a whopping .419.

Two days before throwing the perfect game, Becker had pitched a one-hitter, striking out 20 batters in the game.

Colleges have been interested in her softball talents since she was in sixth grade, and she has two more years of high school left to play. There’s little doubt Becker will be able to pick whichever college softball program she’d like to play for when she graduates, and receiving a full-ride scholarship to do so, is practically guaranteed.