For a while, history was being made in Haymarket.

On Monday night, the first school night since prom weekend, Battlefield baseball pitcher John Williams and softball pitcher Brittany Black were throwing simultaneous no-hitters more than halfway through each of their games.

While the softball game ended in a 17-2 route and Black was pulled after 3 innings in a 4.5-inning affair, Williams needed to be as close to perfect as he could for as long as possible against fifth-seeded Stonewall Jackson in the first round of the Cedar Run District playoffs.

Stonewall embarrassed Battlefield last month in Haymarket by knocking the bejeezus out of the Bobcats 20-4, though the Bobcats later went on to beat SJ in Manassas.

This time around, Brandon McMahon and Chris Wendle scored two of Battlefield's three runs off of SJ pitcher Mike Costello on passed balls with Turner Meeks knocking in the only legitimate RBI of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The right-hander Williams made it through five innings with only two walks before it dawned on him: he had not given up a hit yet.

"As a sophomore, it's my first big experience on the hill, so I mean, I just went out there trying to get first-pitch strikes," said Williams. "Like, I mean, I've done really well this year and I've been successful with my pitches, and I'm just like... I didn't really realize there was a no-hitter going on until I went out there" in the sixth inning.

Baseball superstition then became reality when sophomore catcher Josh Radford lined an 0-2 offering to left field just past the outstretched glove of diving shortstop Bobby Seagears, breaking up the no-no right after Williams thought about it.

In an odd twist of fate, he was later gunned-out trying to steal second base by catcher Joey El-bisi.

"We couldn't do the little things that Battlefield could," said Raiders manager Brian McCarthy, also mentioning he thought Williams did not "miss a spot all game."

John-Austin Shepard earned the save for Battlefield and propelled the Bobcats back into the district semi-finals for the second year in a row with a man on and a called third strike on a 2-2 count in the top of the seventh for out number three.

Final score: Bobcats 3, Raiders 0.

"Well, we're going after this district title and then we're going after the regional title. We're just taking this every game at a time, every pitch at a time," said Seagears of the team's goals.

For the five Stonewall seniors Brian Incheck, Cory Persohn, John Miller, Alex Martinez and Pete Mullinax, the loss to arch-rival Battlefield marked the end of their high school careers.

"Yeah, we obviously hate Battlefield. You can put that in there: We hate Battlefield. And we didn't have that fire in our bellies that we needed," said Incheck.

The second baseman Persohn explained how control of the team is now being passed down.

"...We came out there this year, we were pushing everybody around, trying to get everything organized. You know, with us gone, they're not going to have that. They need to come together as a team," he said.

McCarthy now has one mission for next year's team.

"They've got to get angry. Let's start steamrolling some people," he said.