Baseball: Hersey’s Luxem tosses 1-hit shutout to beat Rolling Meadows

Authors are not always overly impressed with their own work.

That was the case for Hersey senior Keegan Luxem on Wednesday afternoon in Arlington Heights. This was after the UIC-bound right-hander authored a complete-game 1-hitter in a 6-0 Mid-Suburban East victory over Rolling Meadows.

“To be honest I didn’t feel that good coming in,” Luxem said after he improved to 3-0 with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. “Everything was working but my velocity was a little down.”

But when the Huskies (17-3, 6-1) went up with a run in the first inning they felt good about staying at the top of the East race behind Luxem.

Luxem retired the first 11 hitters before Meadows (16-7, 3-5) catcher and No. 3 hitter Ryan Schneider hit a 1-2 slider off the end of the bat into short left field for a single.

“We felt very confident,” said Hersey junior third baseman Mikey Sokan, who went 3-for-3 with an RBI single and his second homer. “Once we put up the first one I was confident he would hold the lead.”

Luxem, who threw only 2 innings last spring and didn’t pitch this summer with an elbow injury, used a slider and changeup he’s been working on with pitching coach Kevin Kelley to throw 64 of his 92 pitches for strikes.

“I’m sure he’ll tell you he’s not happy with the two walks,” said Hersey coach Wally Brownley. “His velocity was great today. He worked fast and mixed it well and that’s a recipe for success.”

Hersey got the run Luxem needed off lefty Charlie Hoeper on a two-out wild pitch after Chuck Meister singled, Drew Thomas walked and Diego Garcia advanced the runners on a groundout to second.

A spectacular leaping grab in deep left by Meadows’ Josh Rappa saved 2 runs in the second. But one of its 4 errors started a 4-run third with RBI singles by Bennett McNeill and Sokan and a 2-run single by Charlie Arvanitis.

“One through nine we’re very deep,” said Sokan, who lined his homer to left in the sixth. “Anyone can do damage at any time and that makes us very dangerous.”

Joe Brigham pitched 3 solid relief innings for Meadows as head coach Matt Rice had to leave just before the first pitch because of a family situation.

“We saw their ace Monday (Xavier-bound Lincoln Causero), but this guy seemed to be a little sharper and was hitting his spots,” said Meadows assistant coach Sam Cannizzaro. “And having our head coach gone at the last second makes it difficult.”

Luxem emphatically ended it with his fourth called strikeout.

“I’m glad to be back,” Luxem said. “It was good to throw a shutout and have the guys behind me score 6 runs.”