Jun 13, 2026 5 min read

Scouting reports? Who needs ’em when you can pitch like Kobe Foster.

Prior to the Wild Things’ game Friday night against the New Jersey Jackals – the first this season against an opponent from the Frontier League’s Atlantic Conference – Foster, Washington’s starting pitcher, had a conversation with manager Tom Vaeth.

“What Tom and I talked about coming in was the (Atlantic) doesn’t see as good a pitching as the Midwest,” Foster said. “He told me, ‘Go in and pitch your game. I don’t have a scouting report on anybody. Just go in and execute.'”

Execute Foster did, in spectacular fashion.

The left-hander from Huntland, Tenn., continued his stellar start to the season by pitching the fourth no-hitter in the Wild Things’ 24-season history as Washington rolled to a 12-0 victory before 2,025 at EQT Park.

Foster (5-0) dominated from start to finish. His sniper-like action on his pitches was obvious early as he struck out five of the first eight New Jersey hitters and had a perfect game for 6 2/3 innings.

Only three Jackals reached base. The first came with two outs in the seventh inning when Felix Stevens’ two-hop bouncer to Cole Fowler went off the third baseman’s glove for an error. In the eighth, Foster walked Noah Furcht on a 3-2 pitch, and he walked Martin Figueroa with one out in the ninth.

Foster struck out a career-high 14, with 13 of those swinging. He moved the ball inside and outside, up and down, changed speeds and worked ahead in the count. He threw 122 pitches.

“(Vaeth) said most of the lefties over there are fastball and slider dominant and they just throw righthanders fastballs away because they’re afraid to come inside,” Foster said.

“Saving some pitches they haven’t seen for the sixth through the ninth innings was huge. I didn’t throw a rightie a single slider until the seventh inning and I think I had five strikeouts on sliders.”

In the ninth, after the one-out walk to Figueroa, Foster struck out Gustavo Sosa, and Stevens ended the game with a groundout to second baseman Connor Peek.

Foster reacted by tossing his glove toward the sky. It was his first no-hitter since junior college ball and his first of the nine-inning variety.

Foster entered the game with a 0.78 ERA over five starts. The ERA is now 0.51. He was named the Frontier League’s Pitcher of the Week on Monday after tossing a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts against Florence last Friday.

“He looked a lot like the pitcher he was last week,” Vaeth said.

Earlier this year, Foster took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Joliet.

“I’ve been close a few times,” he said. “What were the odds of this happening after my best outing?”

It was the first Wild Things no-hitter since Matt Sergey threw the only perfect game in Frontier League history, against Gateway, on Aug. 24, 2014. The other no-hitters were thrown by Adam Palmer against Windy City on Aug. 5, 2003 and Jason Hickman at Kalamazoo on July 15, 2002. Palmer’s was a seven-inning no-hitter.

Foster said he and catcher Isaias Quiroz were on the same page all night.

“We got into a rhythm early, which was good,” Foster said. “If they’re going to feed us a lineup of righties, then we’re going to know what brings success off that and we have to pitch our game and not to what they might do.”

Washington scored the only runs Foster would need in the first inning. Antonio Monroy led off with a ringing double into the left-field corner off New Jersey starter Malik Binns (0-3).

With one out, Andrew Czech was intentionally walked to get to Anthony Brocato, who was coming off the first three-homer game in Wild Things history. Brocato lined a two-run double down the left-field line.

It became 4-0 in the third when Brocato hit a run-scoring double and Czech crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Caleb Ketchup.

Ryan Ford singled and scored on a groundout by Peek to make it 5-0 in the sixth. Washington scored seven runs in the eighth inning while Foster was in the dugout, eager to get back on the mound for the final three outs.

“I love my teammates but I have to admit, during that inning I was thinking a double play might help,” Foster said.

Extra bases

Washington first baseman Andrew Czech had the Barry Bonds-like batting line of 0-for-0 with five walks and three runs. … Three New Jersey pitchers combined to issue 12 walks. … It was the 18th quality start (at least six innings and no more than three earned runs allowed) by Washington pitchers. No other team entered Friday with more than nine quality starts. … Monroy went 3-for-4 and scored three runs. Brocato was 3-for-5 with four RBI. He hit a single off the batter’s eye in the eighth inning, narrowly missing a grand slam.