By Sean Duncan

 

GLENVIEW - The future of Glenbrook South appears to be extremely bright.

 

The present is quite impressive as well.

 

The Titans are off to a strong start, and on Friday against Central Suburban South heavyweight New Trier, they showed why. Behind a sterling pitching performance by Luke Harrison and some clutch hitting from the bottom of its lineup, Glenbrook South handled the Trevians 5-2 at Community Park West to gain a split in the two-game conference series.

 

Harrison, a 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 the Titans improve to 14-4 and 5-1 in the Central Suburban South. The right-hander seemingly got stronger as the game went on. Harrison (4-0) picked at the edges of the plate with his consistent 81-83 mph fastball and mixed in a curveball that got sharper as the game progressed.

 

Harrison 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.?

 

Scouting Notes: Glenbrook South, which starts five juniors and a sophomore, will likely be a plugged into several college coaches? GPSs in the future. The Titans have several projectable prospects with big, athletic frames on their roster: junior LHP/OF Sully Stadler (6-4, 190), junior 1B Zach Jones (6-2, 190), junior Josiah Carlson (6-4, 175) and sophomore RHP/3B Sam Koloms (6-4, 190). ? Jones has one of the purest left-handed swings I?ve seen this year, and he has the stats to back it up. Prior to Friday?s game, Jones was hitting .528 with 18 RBI. ?

 

Keep an eye on New Trier junior OF Josh Perlmutter. The strong and athletic 5-foot-11, 190-pound Perlmutter has all the tools to be a premier prospect. During pregame, he demonstrated a plus arm from right field, and showed off his speed by running 4.31 home-to-first from the right side on a first-inning infield single.