Lucas Dennis is aware of the drill.
He’d been there twice final season, in back-to-back video games. The Saratoga right-hander held Lynbrook and Fremont-Sunnyvale hitless in consecutive begins.
Friday, Dennis, now a senior, was even higher than he was a 12 months in the past.
The truth is, he was good.
The pitcher certain for Pomona-Pitzer retired all 21 batters he confronted as Saratoga gained at residence over Lynbrook 4-0.
Dennis threw 69 pitches, 51 for strikes, and struck out seven.
As if that weren’t sufficient, he went 2 for two with a triple, two RBIs and a stroll for a group that improved its league report to 3-2 and total mark to 5-7.
“It felt actually good; it felt just like the ball was simply leaping out of my hand,” Dennis informed the Bay Space Information Group. “I wasn’t exerting as a lot effort as I usually do. It felt like I had a number of management over my physique. I used to be in a position to be fairly exact the place I used to be placing it.”
As the sport moved alongside, Dennis did all he might to not take into consideration the zero within the hit column.
“It’s really arduous to remain targeted and keep within the second,” he mentioned. “I simply needed to breathe and reset each single pitch and deal with it as one pitch at a time.”
If there have been nerves, they arrived when the highest of Lynbrook’s order batted a second time.
“The 1, 2 and three hitters for Lynbrook are all fairly strong,” Dennis mentioned. “I wasn’t in a position to get as many swings and misses as I’d hoped with these three hitters. However I used to be in a position to get weak contact.
“I used to be a bit nervous there. However as soon as I obtained by way of that, I felt like I used to be just about in management.”
Saratoga coach Vincent Augustine, in his first season with this system, known as Dennis a baseball child.
“It’s in his blood,” Augustine mentioned. “Good for that child. He earned it. If I’m Lynbrook, I’d hate to see Dennis on the opposite aspect.”
The coach mentioned he had a number of confidence in his ace “as a result of it wasn’t simply him making an attempt to win the at-bat. He was in a position to restrict his pitch depend and drive the batter to swing immediately. With the protection behind him, having the ability to play catch at this time, it simply gave him extra of a motive to compete and switch them into hitters versus simply making an attempt to imagine the job on his personal.”
The ultimate out of the sport was a grounder up the first-base line. Dennis scooped up the ball and tossed it underhand to first.
There was no leaping for pleasure.
As Dennis put it later within the night, “I used to be type of simply standing there in shock. I wasn’t 100% positive the sport was over. I type of needed to watch for the umpire to let me know that was the sport. Then I used to be simply celebrating with the group and spending time with the blokes.”
Dennis posed for an image on the mound and with teammates, holding a ball in each images.
“What a option to kick off spring break,” tweeted teammate Aiden Chen, who had successful and scored a run within the recreation. “It was a pleasure watching you consistently pound the zone at this time. Congrats on an ideal recreation and an ideal week!”
Most pitchers, even in highschool, are lucky to pitch one no-hitter.
Dennis now has three, together with a perfecto.
“I by no means would have thought that is potential getting into highschool, for positive,” he mentioned.
The outing Friday earned a tasty deal with for the group.
“We had a 70-pitch-count problem,” Augustine mentioned. “When you can throw a CG (full recreation) or have a group win below 70 pitches, milkshakes on me. He wished that milkshake.”