Ben Steinke Spins Complete Game No-Hitter as Northmont Falls 10-0
For most of the game, Ben Steinke wasn't thinking about history. He was just pitching.
"It's basically a normal game until probably the end," the Centerville sophomore said after spinning a complete game no-hitter against Northmont Tuesday night, leading the Elks JV squad to a dominant 10-0 victory. "I wasn't, like, locked in on it."
That understated calm defined Steinke's night — but the story behind the gem was anything but simple.

Early in the game, Steinke was dealing with a swollen hand that compromised his grip and effectively took his curveball out of the equation. Rather than unravel, he adapted. "After the second inning, I was like, I can't throw it," he said. "And then I started actually being able to grip the ball." He didn't need the curveball after that.

There was also the matter of a walk that kept the night from being perfect. Steinke acknowledged the missed opportunity with the kind of honesty you don't always get from athletes. "It probably would have been a perfect game," he said. "But I walked a kid. Probably too bad." He'll live with it.
Meanwhile, in center field, a subplot was quietly unfolding. Carson Knopp was making his first appearance back from an injury that had kept him sidelined — and he announced his return in style. With a no-hitter on the line, Knopp tracked down a ball in center and made a diving catch that stopped a potential hit cold. For Steinke, it was the play of the game. "He is literally the reason why we got there," Steinke said. "I hugged him afterwards." That Knopp made the catch in his first game back only added to the moment.

In the dugout, the tension was building in the way it only does during a no-hitter — through silence and signals rather than words. Technically, nobody was supposed to say anything. But as Steinke pointed out with a laugh, "We're a bunch of high school kids." Teammates weren't saying anything outright, but they weren't exactly hiding it either. Finger wags. Subtle shakes of the head. The unspoken "don't jinx it" language that every baseball player understands instinctively. "There's definitely people giving hints to it," Steinke said.

As a sophomore pitching at the JV level, Steinke is already thinking about what a performance like this can mean for his future. "Pitching at JV and then showing that if I put in work for next year, I can be there," he said, nodding toward a varsity roster he clearly has his eyes on.
After it was all over, Steinke kept things simple. He headed to Fricker's for chicken wings, squeezed in another meal after that, and was in bed by 10:30. Not a bad way to end a historic night.