TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - John Roland, Jr., took the mound at Tiger Field Thursday with his teammates encouraging him, "throw a no-hitter today." Roland was made for the moment. The sophomore struck out nine, walking one and allowing no hits in a complete-game, 10-1 victory over the Oakwood Ambassadors during the 2026 HBCU Athletic Conference opener.

"I was just trying to throw strikes and get ahead early. My pitches worked," Roland said. "It's crazy. I definitely didn't think it would happen, but I've got trust in my defense. I've got trust in my defense. I knew they were going to make plays when I needed them to make plays. I can't do it all by myself, and they made some key plays to help me get the no-hitter."

It is Stillman College's first individual no-hitter since March 9, 2013 when Joey Falletta tossed a perfect game against Lane College. Roland's no-no is the first in Stillman's modern NAIA era and the program's first in a HBCU Athletic Conference game. Overall, it is Stillman's second no-hitter against Oakwood in the last three years as Steven Oates, Hayes Brown and Mason Collins threw a combined no-hitter at Oakwood on Opening Day 2023.

Roland struck out four of his first six batters faced, while the other two grounded out back to his feet to keep Stillman perfect through two innings.

Kameran Belsar and Mekha Hicks each singled to start the Tigers' offense and scored on a Robert Gage double and Cameron Sippp sac fly to put Stillman on top 2-0 in the first. Belsar made it 3-0 in the second with an RBI ground out.

Oakwood caught a break in the top of the third inning when Roland missed twice, hitting back-to-back batters. He settled in to strike out the next Ambassador but the third strike got away from his catcher, who made a wild throw to first, allowing a run to score.

Stillman shook off the error, along with one in the top of the fourth, to score two runs in both the third and fourth innings. A Davion Wilkins sac fly and Johnathan Phillips RBI single made it a 5-0 game after three, while Gage doubled in a run and scored on an error in the fourth inning to expand the lead, 7-0.

The next three Stillman runs all came on sacrifice fly balls. Phillips plated Wilkins in the fifth, while Daniel Salter and Gavin Rehorn each had sac flies to center in the eighth.

A trio of ground balls retired Oakwood in the top of the eighth, and Roland started his final frame with his ninth K before getting a fly out to left and ground out to second to seal the historic win.

All nine Tiger offensive starters reached base in the game. Belsar, Hicks, Gage and Tory Huddleston each had two hits on the day, while Wilkins, Phillips and Rehorn had one. Sipp walked twice and scored twice.

Stillman (5-5, 1-0 HBCUAC) will close out its first conference home stand of the season with a doubleheader Friday, Feb. 20 beginning at noon.