In his pregame talk on March 2, Joey Kemp was in the business of expectations management.

Simsboro’s baseball coach was addressing a team flowing with confidence after seeing its season opener six days earlier result in a no-hitter, and Kemp was desperate to avoid overconfidence against what he deemed a quality Summerfield team.

“I even told the guys before the game, ‘We’re going to have to play really good defense. We’re not going to have another no-hitter this season, that doesn’t happen very often,’” Kemp said.

The starting pitcher for that day, Cooper Atkins, took no offense.

“I agreed with him when he said that. I came into the game wanting to win, I didn’t plan on throwing a no-hitter,” he said.

When Atkins did just that – take the mound and throw a no-hitter – Simsboro accomplished something that has never been done in Major League Baseball and possibly never been done in Louisiana high school baseball: the Tigers started their season by pitching back-to-back no-hitters. Eli Calhoun started the season with one against D’Arbonne Woods.

In the wake of celebrating this incredibly rare achievement, the most unusual of debates came up: Simsboro was left to decide which no-hitter was better. Calhoun’s no-no featured more strikeouts, as he fanned 11 compared to Atkins’ 10. However, Atkins threw roughly 10 fewer pitches than Calhoun, stayed ahead in the count throughout and walked fewer batters. Also of note in this debate, Atkins threw 13 or fewer pitches in four of his seven innings and retired the first two batters he faced in five innings.

Calhoun ultimately conceded to Atkins’ no-hitter being the better of the two, but not before standing on his strikeout count. Kemp leans toward Atkins’ no-hitter, as well, but with some context.

“How do you say one no-hitter is better than the other one?”

Atkins’ no-no came with on-the-field drama that baseball traditionalists would blame on the dugout: the Tigers broke baseball’s custom of not discussing a no-hitter or perfect game while it’s in progress, making Kemp understandably uncomfortable as they went. In fact, the feat became the only topic of conversation.

“As goofy as our kids are, they were in the dugout talking about it. Everybody was super excited about it happening again,” Kemp said. “They were talking to (Atkins). Typically, everybody stays away from him, nobody says a word.

“We have two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and I have a kid in the dugout go, ‘Hey, we still have a no-hitter.’ It was one of our younger guys. It’s funny now; at the time I wanted to throw him out of the dugout, but it’s funny now.”

Calhoun added, “We knew he had a no-hitter, we couldn’t help but to say it.”

Atkins remembers being told in the fourth inning of the no-hitter in progress, and as superstition would have it, trouble came in the fifth inning. Ty Best was in center field for Simsboro that day and was called upon to make a dramatic no-hitter saving catch, one that Kemp may have been more relieved to see than Atkins.

“The kid hit it well, Ty ran a long way and laid full Superman, I guess you would say, and caught it,” Kemp said. “I didn’t think he caught it; I was mad at myself for the pitch call. I looked down because I was so mad.”

The close call gives a quick window into an often forgotten aspect of the pressure that comes with nearly completed no-hitters and perfect games: the pressure on the one calling the pitches. Luckily, Kemp was as well-trained as one can be for such a moment.

“Even calling pitches, you get nervous because you don’t want to be the one that makes the wrong pitch call and be the reason we give up a hit,” Kemp said. “I give a lot of credit to (West Ouachita baseball coach Mitch) Thomas for that, because I sat there and watched him call pitches for six years.”

Kemp added he also learned a lot from West Ouachita football coach Joey Pender on managing different players in different situations.

The Tigers finally got their chance to celebrate after the final out of Atkins’ no-hitter, something Calhoun missed out on: Kemp was the only one who knew Calhoun had a no-hitter going. Kemp’s awarding of the game ball to Calhoun and announcing the reason for it came as a shock to the players.

Despite being labelled as the lesser of the two no-hitters, Calhoun’s did put less of a strain on the defense behind him: Calhoun recorded 16 of the 21 outs more or less single-handedly, striking out 11 and fielding five ground balls. His no-hitter was saved by second baseman Ethan Nugent catching up to a hard-hit ball that was ultimately ruled an error.

As celebrated as the two no-hitters have been, Simsboro came dangerously close to a third. The day after Atkins’ no-hitter, Calhoun took the mound again. A misjudged fly ball in the outfield on a windy day was ruled a hit, but after that, he did not allow another hit until the fifth inning. All things considered, the Tigers were one wind-driven fly ball away from opening their season with 19 consecutive no-hit innings.

“Those guys have been working extremely hard on and off the field to get better and put themselves in this situation,” Kemp said.

The feats have come as a pleasant surprise in a bigger sense than the simple of shock of witnessing such history: the early performances by Calhoun and Atkins, who have now both pitched twice, solidified a pitching rotation that Kemp was unsure of as he entered his first season at Simsboro. Coming in, Kemp heard plenty about Calhoun’s talent, but did not hear much on anyone else.

“I was thinking the whole time, ‘I have one arm, how am I going to manufacture other arms to be able to do this?’” Kemp said.

Five games in (Simsboro is 4-1), all questions about available pitching talent are gone. If anything, the Tigers need to be prepared to be the bulls-eye for their district competition quickly approaching. Calhoun and Atkins both feel prepared for such attention and are ready to be known for more than just well-timed no-hitters.

“We really can’t rely on the two no-hitters to balance out our season,” Atkins said. “We have a lot of ball left to play.”

Follow Brett on Twitter, @BHudsonTNS.