Throwing 40 K's in HS game and losing. No question that is amazing:
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Prep Righty Sets Record With 40 Strikeouts
By Alan Matthews
May 27, 2004
Major milestones are usually accompanied by lavish celebrations. But when Illinois high school pitcher Joe Labek set a new national record for strikeouts in a game with 40, there was no tickertape. He didn't dance off the mound.
Heck, his team didn't even win.
Ridgewood High fell to Evergreen Park High 2-1 in a 24-inning game played over two days, a week apart in suburban Chicago. Labek gave a yeoman's effort, pitching the final 21 innings of the game for Ridgewood and striking out 40, but he gave up a run in the top of the 24th to take the loss.
"I felt bad for Joe," Ridgewood coach Paul Frerking said. "He pitches great and loses that game. Nobody was interested (in the strikeouts). You lose that game and it just took the wind out a little."
Labek said he was unaware of his strikeout total though he thought it was "somewhere in the 30s" when he came off the mound and saw all the "K" signs fans had posted along a fence. He learned it was an Illinois record when he read a story about the performance in the Chicago Tribune, but didn't realize it was a national record until told by a Baseball America reporter.
Labek, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound righthander, just took his final high school exam--he'll play baseball at Arizona State next year--and was savoring his record-setting performance.
"I have it on my mantel," he said of the ball used in the final inning. "I don't know if anyone will (break the record), but I want this for awhile."
It started out so routine. Labek came on in relief in the fourth inning of a scoreless game against Evergreen Park May 17. He tossed nine shutout innings with 18 strikeouts, three hits and a walk, but Ridgewood also couldn't score. The game was suspended after 12 innings due to darkness, and Labek and his teammates left feeling frustrated they were unable to scratch across a run. They figured the game wouldn't be completed because of heavy rain in the area and the approaching end of the regular season.
Ridgewood went on to sweep a doubleheader against Riverside Brookfield High three days later, with Labek tossing a shutout in the second game, striking out 12. Ridgewood was left tied with Riverside Brookfield in their conference standings, so the Ridgewood-Evergreen Park game had to be finished on Tuesday.
Frerking sent Labek back out for Ridgewood, figuring it would take an inning or two to snap the tie. Labek's 86 mph fastball and good, 12-to-6 curveball were sharp again as he struck out the first nine batters he faced before getting a groundout, followed by four more strikeouts to run his total to 31.
"You just keep marking K's in the book but . . . I am not thinking about strikeouts, but how we're going to score a run," Frerking said.
"My mechanics just started coming together and my fastball started getting up there and I was nailing the corner," Labek said. "I can pretty much lay them all in there for strikes."
Finally in the 19th inning, Evergreen snapped the scoreless tie when Labek issued one of his three walks, a single, a sacrifice and a wild pitch. But Ridgewood answered in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a two-out balk to tie it at 1-1.
The game remained deadlocked through the 23rd, when Labek tied the all-time national mark, notching his 37th strikeout of the game to work out of a jam. The previous record for strikeouts in an extra-inning game was 37, set by Billy Brimm of Asher (Okla.) High in 1971 in a 17-inning game.
"I could tell he was getting a little tired," Frerking said. "I talked to him and I said, 'Do you want to come out?' He said he still had it."
"I told him no, I was going to stick in there as long as I could," Labek said.
Labek gave up a leadoff double in the 24th and walked the next batter intentionally. He broke the record against the next hitter before a bloop single brought home the go-ahead run. He struck out the next two hitters to reach 40, but Ridgewood couldn't score in the bottom half, making for a sour ending to an epic outing.
Labek threw 86 pitches in the first nine innings of his outing. A week later, he tossed 121 pitches, the last of which was a fastball that sailed into his catcher's mitt for his 40th strikeout. The game was also the longest in Illinois high school history.
He completed the regular season with 144 strikeouts in 92 innings, allowing eight earned runs and 15 walks. He says the Arizona State coaching staff has discussed using him only at third base next season, though, as he hit .552-2-36 in 105 at-bats. He hopes his claim to fame might influence the coaches to give him a chance on the mound next season.