When pitcher Brian Holliday starts for the Pirates' Class A minor-league team at Hickory, N.C., his mother listens in Moon by way of the Internet and radio station WMNC.

But the server was down Monday night and Patricia Holliday wasn't able to follow her son's pitch-by-pitch progress against visiting Charleston, W.Va.

It wasn't until late in the night that Brian finally returned her phone calls.

"What happened?" she asked anxiously.

"You didn't hear?" he responded. "I threw a no-hitter."

Actually, it was a combined no-hitter with Holliday pitching the first 7 1/3 innings and relief specialist Chris Demaria getting the final five outs in a 1-0 win. It was just the second no-hitter in Hickory's 11-year history.

Holliday, a 20-year-old left-hander with a 7-6 record and a 4.60 ERA, was dominant in the first five innings of the South Atlantic League game, striking out 11 batters.

Heading into the eighth inning, he had allowed only one batter to reach base -- that coming on a second-inning infield error -- and clung to a 1-0 lead.

But Holliday, a 2002 Moon High School graduate, walked the first two batters in the eighth, then threw a wild pitch, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Holliday then induced the next batter to ground out to the second baseman, who threw out a Charleston runner at the plate.

Hickory manager Dave Clark then took Holliday out in favor of Demaria.

"It was a tough decision. You want to see the kid get the no-hitter," Clark said. "But we're talking about a young kid who had reached his pitch count."

Said Holliday: "When the manager came out I was thinking 'Please don't take me out.' I was tired but I thought I could battle. But he did what he had to do."

Demaria got the final two outs in the eighth on strikeouts and then retired the side in order in the ninth to preserve the no-hitter.

The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 48 minutes, because of rain, and Hickory play-by-play announcer Dave Friedman estimates only 400 or 500 fans were in the stands at the end.

Holliday, a 12th-round draft pick of the Pirates who led Moon High School to two PIAA Class AAA titles, said he never threw a no-hitter in high school but did in American Legion ball..

Holliday, who was 19 when the season started, began the season as the second-youngest player in the South Atlantic League, according to Brian Graham, the director of player development for the Pirates.

Holliday isn't overpowering, usually throwing between 85 to 91 mph. His curveball is considered his best pitch. Command and mixing pitches will be his ticket to the big leagues.

Holliday spent his first two seasons in the Pirates' organization playing in the rookie league at Bradenton, where he pitched in 20 games. But the Pirates skipped him past Williamsport this season to play at Hickory, a more competitive level of Class A.