Saratoga pitcher who threw back-to-back no-hitters last season fires a perfect game
Saratoga's Lucas Dennis retires all 21 Lynbrook batters in a 69-pitch masterpiece. He also went 2 for 2 with two RBIs.
Lucas Dennis knows the drill.
He’d been there twice last season, in back-to-back games. The Saratoga right-hander held Lynbrook and Fremont-Sunnyvale hitless in consecutive starts.
Friday, Dennis, now a senior, was even better than he was a year ago.
In fact, he was perfect.
The pitcher bound for Pomona-Pitzer retired all 21 batters he faced as Saratoga won at home over Lynbrook 4-0.
Dennis threw 69 pitches, 51 for strikes, and struck out seven.
As if that weren’t enough, he went 2 for 2 with a triple, two RBIs and a walk for a team that improved its league record to 3-2 and overall mark to 5-7.
“It felt really good; it felt like the ball was just jumping out of my hand,” Dennis told the Bay Area News Group. “I wasn’t exerting as much effort as I normally do. It felt like I had a lot of control over my body. I was able to be pretty precise where I was putting it.”
As the game moved along, Dennis did all he could to not think about the zero in the hit column.
“It’s actually hard to stay focused and stay in the moment,” he said. “I just had to breathe and reset every single pitch and treat it as one pitch at a time.”
If there were nerves, they arrived when the top of Lynbrook’s order batted a second time.
“The 1, 2 and 3 hitters for Lynbrook are all pretty solid,” Dennis said. “I wasn’t able to get as many swings and misses as I’d hoped with those three hitters. But I was able to get weak contact.
“I was a bit nervous there. But once I got through that, I felt like I was pretty much in control.”
Saratoga coach Vincent Augustine, in his first season with the program, called Dennis a baseball kid.
“It’s in his blood,” Augustine said. “Good for that kid. He earned it. If I’m Lynbrook, I’d hate to see Dennis on the other side.”
The coach said he had a lot of confidence in his ace “because it wasn’t just him trying to win the at-bat. He was able to limit his pitch count and force the batter to swing right away. With the defense behind him, being able to play catch today, it just gave him more of a reason to compete and turn them into hitters versus just trying to assume the job on his own.”
The final out of the game was a grounder up the first-base line. Dennis scooped up the ball and tossed it underhand to first for the final out.
There was no jumping for joy.
As Dennis put it later in the evening in an interview with the Bay Area News Group, “I was kind of just standing there in shock. I wasn’t 100 percent sure the game was over. I kind of had to wait for the umpire to let me know that was the game. Then I was just celebrating with the team and spending time with the guys.”
Dennis posed for a picture on the mound and with teammates, holding a ball in both photos.
“What a way to kick off spring break,” tweeted teammate Aiden Chen, who had a hit and scored a run in the game. “It was a pleasure watching you constantly pound the zone today. Congrats on a great game and a great week!”
Most pitchers, even in high school, are fortunate to pitch one no-hitter.
Dennis now has three, including a perfecto.
“I never would have thought this is possible entering high school, for sure,” he said.
The outing Friday earned a tasty treat for the team.
“We had a 70-pitch-count challenge,” Augustine said. “If you can throw a CG (complete game) or have a team win under 70 pitches, milkshakes on me. He wanted that milkshake.”