North Boone grad Chandler Alderman makes his mark with Middle Tennessee State baseball

The first NCAA Division I baseball player from North Boone is the first Middle Tennessee State pitcher in 20 years to throw a no-hitter.

“I first noticed it in the seventh inning,” said Chandler Alderman, who struck out 11 in a 10-0 win over Liberty in eight innings on March 23. “I was running through the whole game in my head, looked at the scoreboard and it said zero, zero, zero up there. It was a weird feeling, but a good one.

“I thought, ‘Let’s not blow this and make it all for nothing.’ It all worked out.”

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College baseball can turn suddenly. Middle Tennessee (10-16, 2-4) lost its other two games to Liberty in that Conference USA series 11-6 and 25-9, but held them scoreless in Alderman’s second career start. And in Alderman’s next game, the freshman left-hander held a 5-1 lead after five innings before Binghamton scored 12 runs in the sixth to complete a three-game series sweep.

“I’ve had to learn how to pitch differently from high school,” Alderman said. “In high school, I might see one or two Division I hitters all year. In college, everyone in the lineup is a Division I athlete who has been recruited to play baseball. Every pitch counts or they are going to hit it over the wall.”

The big left-hander — he is a sturdy 6-foot-5 and started on the defensive line at North Boone as well as being an all-conference quarterback in the Big Northern — has increased his fastball a mile or two per hour and now regularly throws 90 to 91. He hopes to get to 93 consistently before the season ends. “As it gets warmer, I tend to throw harder,” he said. He also has been working with coaches to add a changeup to his fastball, slider repertoire.

“I got the changeup going later in the game in my no-hitter,” he said. “It got them off the fastball. It’s a feel pitch. Some days, it just feels different in your hand. It really gets them out on their front foot. It gives them another pitch they have to protect against. They can’t sit on my slider or fastball.”

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That no-hitter jump-started Alderman’s college career. He had a strong showing in fall team scrimmages, but that’s just against his own team. He had pitched seven times in relief, but made only one start in the Blue Raiders’ first 22 games before that no-hitter. And even in that game, he wasn’t originally scheduled to start.

“Nobody was there,” Alderman said of his friends and family from Poplar Grove, “because it was such short notice. Coach (Jerry Meyers) told me the night before. They wanted to come, but just couldn’t. They are coming to watch me start Saturday against New Mexico State.

“The games are all streamed on ESPN. They were watching there. After the game, everybody was blowing up my phone, all my family and friends. My phone was going crazy. I had to mute the notifications that night and the next day. It took me an hour and a half to get out of the facility. I had a couple of interviews and kids kept coming up to me. My dad just kept waiting for my phone call. When I called, he was more excited than I was.”

Alderman kept that excitement going against Binghamton until the sixth inning, when Binghamton scored 12 runs, five of them against Alderman. That raised his ERA to 4.82 — still well under the team ERA of 7.70. But allowing only one run in the first five innings against such a high-scoring team further validated Alderman’s talents.

“It was definitely nice,” Alderman said. “I knew in my own head I needed to perform again to keep the starting spot. I had to go prove myself again.”

Alderman, who was named Conference USA Pitcher of the Week after his no-hitter, has quickly found a home at Middle Tennessee. The business administration major says “the school is great” and has acclimated himself well. “The neat thing about being on the baseball team is you don’t have to try and find friends. You are with them every day,” he said.

He is already thinking of Tennessee as his new home. And he may not be the only one. Tennessee is known for having very low property taxes.

“That’s all everybody talks about,” Alderman said. “My parents. My friends' parents. They always talk about it.

“I definitely think I am going to stay here after college.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Chandler Alderman throws no-hitter for Middle Tennessee State baseball