UC Irvine’s Glenn Swanson Tosses No-Hitter Over Toreros

The University of California, Irvine’s Glenn Swanson (San Diego/Morse HS) didn’t try to do anything differently when he took the mound April 25, 2006, for a Tuesday spot start against the University of San Diego. As a matter of fact, he didn’t feel all that good to begin with.
“I have actually been sick for about a week,” the southpaw said, “I didn’t feel all that great before the game either, but once I put my spikes on, that all goes out the window. The only think I think about is pounding the zone and trying to find a way to help the team win.”
Swanson did more than help find a way to win, he single-handedly lead the Anteaters to a 7-0 win, pitching the game of his life, a 9 inning, no-hitter with 14 strike outs while yielding one walk on only 89 pitches.

“I didn’t try to do anything special, I just stuck to my routine and kept the good thoughts going that if I could continually pound the zone, we would have the best chance of winning the game. I just stuck to my routine and deep breath before each pitch and used my cue words for each pitch like our Peak Performance Coach Brian Cain had worked with us on. I was totally focused on taking it one pitch at a time, and luckily we got the desired end result.”
Coming off of a Big West Conference loss three days earlier to UC Santa Barbara in which Swanson entered the game in the 9th inning with the lead, Coach Dave Serrano was just looking for his fifth year senior to get some innings in before turning it over to the rest of the Anteaters staff.

“My intention was to have Swanny go for 3-4 innings,” Serrano said “His pitch count was low and he was throwing strikes so we stuck with him. Swanny is one of the hardest working guys I have had the privilege of coaching. He has had to overcome a lot of adversity in his five years here at UCI. I don’t know if I have ever seen a team pull for a guy like we do for him, that is because he is such a great teammate, and the guys all have great respect and admiration for him.”

Swanson’s amazing feat was UCI’s first no-hitter since April 27, 1974, when Tad Davis led the Anteaters to an 18-0 win over Southern Utah. The only other no-hitter in the program’s history was recorded March 3, 1970 against Cal Tech as Dave Wollos pitched UCI to an 8-0 victory. It was the first no-hitter tossed by a Big West school since a combined effort by Cal Poly in 2003 when the Mustangs defeated Southern Utah 7-0. Pacific’s D.J. Houlton hurled the Big West’s last complete-game no-hit effort in 2001, an 8-0 triumph over UC Riverside.
Swanson, who had strung together 14 hitless innings in two starts, retired the first five batters in a start the following Sunday vs. UC Davis before giving up hit in the second. However, Swanson managed to hold the Aggies scoreless until the fifth when they finally pushed across a run, ending his stretch of scoreless innings at 17.2.

“I have been going out there and just pitching my game,” Swanson said. “It doesn’t matter who is in the box, who we are playing, what the score is, or the magnitude of the game. My job as a pitcher is to pound the mitt. That is all I can control. Once the ball leaves my hand, I can’t control what happens, if the umpire makes a bad call, if I give up a hit, or if a teammate makes an error. If I pound the mitt consistently, I am giving myself and the team the best chance for success, and that is all I can do. Working with Brian Cain on the mental game and coming to grips with this understanding that I have to control what I can control and let everything else take care of it self has really helped me.”

FIRST ROUND MENTAL COACHING is FREE - CLICK HERE NOW