Harrison tosses gem for Glenbrook South

Updated: April 29, 2011 8:45PM

Glenbrook South right-hander Luke Harrison said in years past his arm would’ve been gassed by the seventh inning.

But this season, he’s found that extra gear in the later innings, which was clearly evident Friday in leading Glenbrook South to a 5-2 victory over Central Suburban South rival New Trier at Community Park West in Glenview.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound unsigned senior limited New Trier (12-5, 4-2) to only four hits and recorded 11 strikeouts and walked one to help Glenbrook South (14-4, 5-1) gain a split in the two-game conference series. Harrison (4-0) struck out four of the final six batters he faced to close out his complete-game gem.

“Lately I’ve been feeling really strong in the later innings,” said Harrison,

who retired the side in order in five of the seven innings. “Today I felt like I could’ve gone another seven innings.”

Despite Harrison’s dominance, the game was tied 2-2 before Glenbrook South pushed across three runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth to break the game open. The Titans’ bottom of the order did the damage, as sophomore third baseman Sam Koloms ripped an RBI double and No. 9 hitter, junior shortstop Josiah Carlson, had a run-scoring single. Northwestern-bound catcher Cody Libman, who had a run-scoring single in the fourth, also tallied a single in the sixth against Illinois-bound, right-hander Brian Kost (3-2).

“This was a big win,” said Libman, who finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and killed New Trier’s first-inning rally by gunning down a runner at third base. “I think this team is good enough to win conference. We have good senior leadership and a lot of very talented underclassmen. We knew that New Trier would be one of our toughest competitors.”

Senior left fielder Chris Szafranski finished 2-for-4 with a run-scoring single in the sixth, and junior first baseman Zach Jones went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

New Trier managed three of its four hits in the fifth inning, punctuated by senior catcher Tommy Blanchard’ two-run triple to tie the game at 2-2. After that, Harrison didn’t allow another base-runner and struck out two in the seventh.

“We didn’t have good enough at-bats early in the game to tire him out at the end,” said New Trier coach Mike Napoleon. “We didn’t foul enough balls off, and we didn’t put the barrel on enough balls.”

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