Baseball’s Mottl Shuts Out Russia

July 27, 1998

Clemson junior-to-be Ryan Mottl (Florissant, MO) pitched a complete game, three-hit shutout for the USA National Team against Russia on July 25 in the World Championships in Italy.

Mottl struck out nine batters and allowed four walks in the eight inning game. He also retired the first 12 batters of the game. The game was halted with the score 10-0 due to the international run-differential rule. The USA National Team evened its record at 2-2 with the win, but fell to Nicaragua 9-2 on Sunday, July 26. Mottl lowered his ERA to 3.45 in nine appearances (seven starts) and 44.1 innings pitched for the USA National Team this summer.

Clemson rising sophomore Patrick Boyd (Palm Harbor, FL) hit a solo home run in his only at bat after coming off the bench in Sunday’s loss.

The USA National Team has two games remaining to play in the round robin tournament. Its next game is against Australia on Tuesday evening in Palermo, Sicily. The top four teams in the eight-team bracket will advance to the next round.

Below is Boyd and Mottl’s USA National Team’s up to date stats:

RYAN MOTTL USA National Team StatsYear    ERA    W-L   GP-S  CG  SHO  SV  IP    H   R   ER  BB  SO1997    6.21   2-2    8-6   0   0    0  29.0  33  24  20  15  161998    3.45   3-0    9-7   1   1    0  44.1  44  21  17  16  40Total   4.54   5-2   17-13  1   1    0  73.1  77  45  37  31  56

PATRICK BOYD USA National Team Stats Year AVG GP-S AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB HBP SF OB% SB 1998 .267 38-21 90 17 24 2 0 2 15 32 8 7 1 .368 1-1