Like a lot of people, Glenn Goya watched, entranced by the compelling drama being played out on his television Friday night.

That’s when pitcher Quintin Torres-Costa and Waiakea High no-hit Baldwin in the Division I title game of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships.

But Goya knew better than most both the feelings that gripped Torres-Costa on the mound at Les Murakami Stadium and the triumph the Warriors shared in the eventual 5-2, seven-inning victory over the Bears. With Torres-Costa limited to six innings by the 39-out maximum, Kodi Medeiros pitched the final inning of Waiakea’s victory.

Forty years earlier Goya had been the first to author a no-hitter — and the only one to complete a perfect game — in a state title game.

That 5-0, nine-inning Punahou victory over Saint Louis at Honolulu Stadium in 1972 as a junior is an enduing staple of tournament lore, along with John Matias’ four home runs for Farrington in 1962.

It remains the pitching performance by which all others are judged. Proof of which was how Goya’s text and email count began to mount as the Warriors were putting the final touches on their own unbeaten (20-0) season Friday night. Friends and colleagues wanted to make sure the 58-year-old Goya, a First Hawaiian Bank vice president, took note of the modern-day reminder of his own feat.

For Goya, who had come home late from a golf outing to watch the final innings, there were indeed stirrings of the past. Remembrances, for example, of Punahou’s 19-0-1 unbeaten season that he wrapped up with an exclamation point. "The guy (Torres-Costa) is a lefty, too, and (he) reminded me of how I threw, kind of side (armed)," Goya said. "It kinda brought back memories of what I went through and some of the defensive plays that helped me pull it off."

Goya still recalls and marvels at, for instance, the game his catcher, Mike Moss, called behind the plate and the diving grab by Mosi Tatupu in right field that helped preserve the gem.

"It seemed like only yesterday but, actually, it is 40 years, right?" Goya said of his pinch-me moment.

Curiously, Goya’s baseball future would progress on his ability to hit a baseball rather than throw one. He earned a scholarship to Colorado State as a pitcher/first baseman, but rarely saw the mound after making a startling, career-altering discovery. "When I got there (to Fort Collins, Colo.) my best pitch was a curveball and up in that high altitude (4,800 feet) it wouldn’t break like at sea level," Goya said. "So I became an everyday (position) player."

And a remarkable one, too, hitting .406 for his career and winning All-America honors at first base as a senior, leading the NCAA in hitting (.485) and slugging percentage (.921).

That was good enough for the San Francisco Giants to invest a ninth-round pick in Goya, who hit .324 and .299 in two minor league seasons before deciding to put his business degree to work at the bank.

Goya’s only misgiving watching Friday night’s no-hitter? "That they don’t play nine innings so somebody can come on and accomplish the same feat I did."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.