By MICHAEL RADANO
Courier-Post Staff
ATLANTIC CITY

Atlantic City's Mitch Williams, eight years removed from his job as the closer for the 1993 Phillies World Series team, was perfect through the first 4 2/3 innings of Friday night's Atlantic League game between the Surf and the Camden Riversharks.

Was it a reflection of his ability, or was it the inability of the lineup he was facing?

Probably both as the ``Wild Thing'' had a no-hitter for 5 1/3 innings for Atlantic City, which scored all of its runs in the first three innings in a 7-1 win over the Sharks, in front of 5,650 fans at the Sandcastle.

No offense to Williams, who refused to accept much credit for his performance, but the Fountain of Youth is a myth. Just like the Camden Riversharks' offense.

``I couldn't spot my fastball, so I just threw my slider and they put it into play,'' Williams said.

In his defense, the 36-year-old former major leaguer had been impressive in his five previous outings since being added to the roster in late May. The Surf player/pitching coach entered the game with a 2-0 record and 2.38 ERA in 11 1/3 innings.

Friday night, he went six innings and allowed a run on four hits and one walk. Williams has now struck out eight and has allowed three walks, nine hits and one earned run in his last 13 innings of work.

But don't expect Williams to make any major league comebacks.

``There is zero temptation for me to be a starting pitcher,'' Williams said. ``I'm not a pitcher. I'm a coach. I love what I'm doing now. Both (Andy) High and (Ariel) Garcia threw in the All-Star Game, and I didn't want to mess up the rotation.

``In order to throw a no-hitter you have to go nine innings. As long as my (butt) is pointing down I'm not throwing nine innings.''

Coincidence or not, the radar gun wasn't operating at the start of the game. But as Williams hit his spots with a slider and allowed just five balls to leave the infield over the first six innings, he may have proven that making a radar gun light up doesn't mean much.

Williams, who made his third start of the season, retired the first 14 Sharks hitters in order. He was perfect with a fastball that topped out at 85 mph until he walked former Phillies teammate Kim Batiste with two outs in the fifth inning.

``If that's what he was throwing, obviously he wasn't throwing very hard,'' Sharks manager Wayne Krenchicki said. ``But he did throw a lot of split-fingers and sliders, and guys were hitting on top of the ball. We just didn't do anything with it. I don't know what else to say.''

The Sharks (24-40 in the first half, 0-1 in the second) finally got to Williams in the seventh. Dan Held led off the inning with a double into the left-field corner. Catcher Guillermo Garcia then hit an RBI single into right- center. Batiste followed with a double into the right-field corner that sent Williams to the bench to return to his coaching duties.

Dave Mastrolonardo walked the first batter he faced in relief of Williams to load the bases with no outs. The lefty then struck out the next three hitters and the threat was over.

Atlantic City (39-25, 1-0) jumped on starter Del Matthews for one run in the first and four in the second.