The American Athletic Conference had two outstanding pitching performances out of the state of North Carolina on Friday, March 7.

Charlotte's Blake Gillespie tossed the second no-hitter in program history, as the 49ers shutout JMU, 5-0. East Carolina's Ethan Norby struckout a conference single-game record 19 batters, as the Pirates defeated No. 24 Coastal Carolina, 7-0.

Gillespie only allowed one runner from a walk, who was promptly thrown out trying to steal by Logan Poteet, as he faced the minimum number of batters possible to join Ronnie Honeycutt as the only pitchers in program history to throw a no-hitter.

He got 11 of his outs from strikeouts for Charlotte's (5-6) seventh game with double-digit strikeouts this season. Gillespie was pounding the zone all day, throwing over 70% of his pitches for strikes while only issuing the one walk - and only finding himself in a full count twice across the nine innings.

Norby broke the previous single-game strikeout record of Memphis' Jonathan Bowlan, set back on April 28, 2018 against South Florida. Norby and Ethan Young, who struck out three in relief, tied the Pirate program record for team strikeouts in a single game.

Norby, who tossed a career-best 7.1 frames, and Young combined to post the most strikeouts in a single game by any team in the nation this season while Norby’s 19 Ks are the most by any pitcher in the country in 2025.