St. Mike’s star throws 3 no-hitters after prank lands him in jail

SANTA FE — In his first three years on varsity, Colin Friedman never tossed a perfect game. In fact, the St. Michael’s senior hadn’t even sniffed a no-hitter.

But now, Friedman has three no-no’s in his last three starts, including tossing a perfect game Tuesday in a 3-0 win against Pojoaque Valley.

The Horsemen right-hander hasn’t yielded a hit in 18 innings, while retiring his last 31 batters, dating back to his second no-hitter of the year — a 10-0 mercy-rule win over Bloomfield on March 20. His first-ever no-hitter was during a 7-0 win against Raton on March 16.

Maybe the only thing that’s gone wrong lately for Friedman was a bungled teenage prank that got him booked into jail on a petty misdemeanor charge.

He was pulled over at about 12:30 a.m. March 14 for making an illegal U-turn and a police officer saw two street signs in the car, according to the officer’s court statement. One of the signs was for Tony Street.

Friedman first told the officer the signs had fallen off but then acknowledged he had taken the signs “because they had his buddy’s name on it” — probably a reference to Horsemen basketball player Antonio Garcia, also in the car. Both Friedman and Garcia were charged with receiving stolen property of less than $500 in value.

Friedman, asked about the incident Friday, said, “We’ve had our discussion with the administration and it has been dealt with.”

St. Mike’s baseball coach David Vigil declined comment beyond saying the school administration was aware of the case, which is pending disposition in Magistrate Court.

Back on the field, second baseman Michael Rivera says, Friedman actually should have two perfect games. Rivera made an error in the Raton game’s second inning — the only blemish in an otherwise flawless pitching performance.

“It was just a ground ball hit right to me and I took my eye off it for a second,” he said. “I blew his perfect game. I felt so bad.”

So on Tuesday when a sharply struck ball by Pojoaque’s Isaac Estevan in the third inning headed up the middle, Rivera moved to action, making a clean backhand stab and subsequent throw to first.

His first reaction was relief.

“I didn’t want to mess up again like I did the first time — I wasn’t going to let that happen again,” he said. “I just trusted my hands and fielded that ground ball.”

But that wasn’t the only moment that made the typically calm and cool Friedman squirm a little bit.

“I also hung a curveball to (Pojoaque’s) No. 3 hitter (Ryan Wolf) and he hit it good — it was a line-drive one-hopper to our shortstop (Reyes Lujan),” he said. “Reyes knocked it down and it kind of went behind him — he had to spin around and grab it with one hand. Luckily Reyes has a cannon for an arm because he only got him by a bit. But that one was close.”

Lujan said he was just doing his job. “I was ready for the ball and didn’t even think about it,” he said.

Lujan said probably the most difficult part of the perfect game happened in the dugout.

“We’re really used to talking to Colin and telling him good job and stuff,” he said. “But during a perfect game, you can’t say anything.”

As for Friedman, he said once he got deeper into the contest and the offense strung together some runs, it felt like just another outing.

“We had the lead so at that point I could just concentrate on protecting that,” he said. “And also by that time, I was already in the zone, so it didn’t really sink in until that final out. But it was a pretty cool thing.”

Friedman’s next pitching assignment is next Saturday’s doubleheader against Class 3A’s top-ranked Hope Christian. Still, “I’m not thinking of the fourth (no-hitter) at all — it’s Hope Christian. They beat us at the Cobre tournament (6-5) and I pitched against them — they’re tough,” he said. “I’ll be more focused on just getting two wins.”

Friedman has been accepted to Johns Hopkins and is waiting to hear from Occidental College and Trinity University. While he is still undecided, he said he will play baseball.

His court case, likely to be resolved with community service, has been assigned to Judge David Segura, whose son is also on the St. Mike’s baseball team. Segura said Friday he didn’t know he’d been assigned the case but would probably recuse himself from hearing it.

St. Mike’s basketball player Kameron Romero was with Friedman and Garcia when they were picked up. Romero’s case was forwarded to juvenile authorities.

Also in the car was a “photo enforcement zone” sign.