Centralia College pitcher Ryan Henrickson of Anchorage was so good on Sunday he deserved a win and a save.

He'll gladly settle for his first shutout.

Henrickson turned in a Herculean effort with a 121-pitch, 10-inning complete game to carry Centralia to a 1-0 NWAC road win over Pierce in Puyallup, Washington.

“This was definitely one of the best outings of my life hands down,” he said.

The sophomore southpaw out of Dimond High scattered seven hits and a walk while striking out six. He worked three 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, fifth and eighth, and ended the game with a runner in scoring position.

“One thing that stood out to me was that I didn’t enter my usual lull that I tend to get into around the fourth or fifth inning,” Henrickson said. “Every inning I felt I was getting more and more locked in since the game was becoming more and more intense.”

He didn’t allow a baserunner to reach third base and danced around two singles in the third inning and a two-out double in the tenth.

“All four of my pitches were working and hitting the zone,” Henrickson said. “The first half of the game I was starting hitters out with more off-speed pitches. Later in the game we switched to more fastballs since they were most likely sitting my off speed early in the count.”

His catcher Braize Mitchell threw out two baserunners, erasing leadoff singles in each of the first and sixth innings. The Alaska pitcher also got a double play behind him to get out of the ninth inning.

Henrickson’s string of goose eggs was matched inning by inning by Pierce pitchers Kailen Kimata and Curran Jacobs. These guys were shoving, and the batters were baffled.

“I could tell as the game went on our hitters were really trying to get that run for me,” Henrickson said. “They knew I was working my butt off for them so it was really nice to see them doing the same for me.”

Centralia finally scored a run in the top of the tenth inning after third baseman River Terry walked and later scored on an error.

In the bottom of the tenth, Henrickson retired the first two batters on popups and then gave up a pinch-hit double before ending the game on a groundball to third base.

“I always have trust in my defense because I know I can’t do it by myself. I know if I want to win and succeed, I need to trust the eight other guys in the field, plus the guys in the dugout and bullpen,” he said. “It’s really cool to have different guys come in to play in the field, and continue to make plays behind me. Only builds my confidence when we can do things like this.”

This was just his third start of the season as he’s been promoted from reliever.  Henrickson (1-0) has struck out 25 batters over 28.1 innings and ranks fifth in the NWAC with a 0.95 ERA.

“I think the biggest thing that has helped me have such a hot start to the season is trusting and really believing that all the work I’ve put in these past two years was for a reason,” he said. “It also really helps having a group of guys that believe in you and have your back no matter the outcome.”