After seeing his older brother throw a no-hitter in the opening game of the season, Trinity Classical Academy sophomore Andrew Carlson decided he had to do something a little bit better.
Carlson tossed a perfect game Thursday afternoon at Canyon High School as the Trinity Knights took down the hosting Cowboys, 8-0. He struck out 10 and needed just 89 pitches to get the job done.
“I was just throwing my fastball,” Carlson said. “Fastball was working today, high velocity. And I had a couple off-speed pitches here and there. So overall, it was great.”
Older brother John, a senior, threw a five-inning no-hitter to kick off the 2024 campaign.
Andrew’s teammates rushed to the mound after he struck out the final batter, celebrating the immaculate effort. But Andrew said it was more about the team than what he did.
“It was a different feeling,” he said. “It was exciting having everybody celebrate the thing for me, even though we won it as a team. It was really the team win.”
It took a couple of innings for the Trinity (3-1) bats to come alive, but once they did, the runs started to flow. A five-run fifth inning was followed by a three-run fourth to wrap up the scoring on the day.
Senior Luke Backes had three hits in four trips to the plate, driving in two and scoring twice. He also stole two bases.
Junior Quinn Minyard also had three hits while senior Noah Visconti and freshman Cade Herta had two hits each.
Trinity head coach Justin Stark said it was good to see his team play a clean game after coming short in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss at Castaic, the first loss for Trinity this year and the first regular-season loss for the Knights since the 2023 season.
“Tuesday’s loss was great for us,” Stark said. “It was a good learning experience for us. We got back to work Wednesday, and we came out ready to go.”
Canyon (1-4) head coach Zach Newman said his team has been “a little slow with the bats this year,” but that all the credit goes to Trinity’s sophomore standout for his performance on the mound.
“He’s consistently a great pitcher,” Newman said. “And, you know we just didn’t bring the bats. We weren’t making very good contact … We had a couple line drives in the first inning, so I thought we were gonna be able to get on top of it. But then he just made adjustments and shut us down.”
The Knights are likely to make hitting tough for opposing teams throughout the season with the Carlson brothers as a one-two punch on the mound.
John entered Thursday with 19 strikeouts and just two hits and one earned run allowed in eight innings pitched. Andrew made it 16 strikeouts in 10 innings after Thursday’s perfect game.
“It makes my job a lot easier, you know,” Stark said. “And not only are they dominant pitchers, they’re just great guys to have around. They make the team better, they make the team more competitive. And it’s also even better — they’re brothers, so it’s great watching them perform together.”
Those two are likely to feature prominently as Trinity is looking to capture a fourth straight Heritage League title this season. The Knights haven’t lost a league contest since the 2022 season.
“We make our goals before the start of the season, and I know that was at the at the top of the list,” Stark said. “We make our three goals, and we got to get to that one first.”
Trinity has three more non-league games before kicking off its league campaign the second week of March with two games against crosstown rival Santa Clarita Christian. Before that, the Knights are set to travel to Western Christian on Tuesday.
Canyon is seeking to right the ship after finishing last in the Foothill League last year. Before opening their league campaign up the second week of March with a two-game set against Saugus, the Cowboys have three more non-league games, the first a home game on Monday against Van Nuys.
“As Ted Lasso says, got to be like a goldfish, right,” Newman said, referring to the fictional TV character talking about goldfish having short memories. “So, I mean, we got another game Monday, and we’re going to come and we’re going to try to get some more offense going. That’s sort of my No. 1 priority right now. But again, that pitcher is great. They got a lot of great players on that team, and congratulations to Trinity for that.”
