Routine has turned Southeast Missouri State baseball's Lucchesi into ace, D1 strikeout leader

When Joey Lucchesi pulls his black baseball cap -- with its barely-bent brim and emblazoned with a Redhawk logo -- onto his head each Friday night, chances are it'll come into contact with freshly trimmed hair.

The Southeast Missouri State ace tries to get his hair cut the day of each start. It's the thing he does that he considers a superstition. Eating a sandwich from Quizno's before each of his home starts is where the player, whose coaches and teammates describe as "out there," draws the line. That's just because he likes the food and knows he needs to fuel up for the game.

"Haircut, maybe. Maybe," Lucchesi says as he sits in the Southeast baseball offices and ponders his superstitions. "I feel like I do better when I get a haircut. Because one time I didn't get a haircut and I lost."

The losses have been few and far between for the senior left-handed pitcher during his two seasons as a Redhawk. He takes an 8-3 record into his start at Tennessee Tech tonight.

He may believe the haircut, or lack thereof, has something to do with that, but he and everyone around him knows that it's his strict adherence to and belief in his weekly routine that gives him an edge over the opposing batters.

Southeast pitching coach Lance Rhodes can't help but smile as he tries to describe Lucchesi.

He settles on "vibrant," and explains that he makes random comments that keep things loose with the team and leave his teammates and coaches saying, "Where did that even come from?"

Rhodes thinks his goofy personality is a product of growing up in California, but Redhawks catcher and Lucchesi's roommate Scott Mitchell, also a Californian, doesn't think that's the case.

"He's cooler than me," Mitchell says with a smile. "Yeah, Joey's cooler than me. ... The way he dresses, I guess you could say. He takes pride in his appearance. He gets all the flashy stuff. But that's just because he likes to look good. Look good, feel good, play good, I guess is what Joey thinks, and it seems to work."

That explains the haircut.

Southeast Missouri State starter Joey Lucchesi pitches to a Morehead State batter during the third inning Friday, March 18, 2016 at Capaha Field.Fred Lynch

But there's a whole list of things that Lucchesi does each week to "look good, feel good, play good," that have nothing to do with his style or grooming habits, and not one part of his dedicated routine is more important than the rest. It's the whole regiment that keeps the Ohio Valley Conference's defending Pitcher of the Year honed in for each start.

"On the field he's an artist. Definitely," says Mitchell, who was a teammate of Lucchesi's at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif., in 2013. "He takes a lot of pride in what he does, a lot of preparation. He's very routine-oriented as far as his daily work goes. Depending on the day, he has certain things he likes to do to prepare for his starts on Friday. If you're ever out there watching him there's never a lot he does differently. He has his specific routine. He has his way he likes to stretch, he has his way he likes to get his dry work on the mound. He's got it down to a science, I guess."

Mondays, the team stretches out together; then pitchers go through exercises with J-Bands and he uses a shoulder tube to loosen up his arm before playing 150-foot catch.

Southeast Missouri State pitcher Joey Lucchesi throws during a game against Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Ky., on Friday, March 11, 2016.Wayne McPherson

He goes through a bullpen session on Tuesdays, throwing about 30 pitches. He does the same stretching before and adds in weighted ball work to strengthen his shoulder, runs to flush his arm of lactic acid and gets treatment from the team's athletic trainer, Kyle Wolff.

Wednesdays are a lighter day when he focuses on his mechanics and keeping things smooth without throwing too hard.

He doesn't do any throwing on Thursdays, instead doing dry work on the mound without a ball.

"I've actually asked him before what kinds of things he thinks about when he goes through his dry work," Mitchell says. "He pictures one hitter in the box and he goes through every single one of his pitches and runs through different counts, different scenarios, so really I just think he's throwing a game before he's actually gone in to pitch."

Lucchesi said early in the season he used his dry work to work on some kinks with his arm slot and release, but as he's improved that he's spent the time to work on finishing.

Rhodes explains that Lucchesi's teammates occasionally give him a hard time when he's out there on the mound playing his own little game without a ball.

"He does what he knows he's trying to accomplish," Rhodes says, "but sometimes it looks funny to some guys."

It doesn't bother Lucchesi. What's odd to some is just him training his body to remember the motions so that in a game he doesn't have to think so much.

"He really doesn't get caught up in what people think about him," Southeast coach Steve Bieser says. "He does what he needs to do to be successful and really doesn't care a whole lot about what other people think about whether it's routine or him just being goofy or whatever."

Even the MLB scouts that come to watch Lucchesi on a regular basis don't seem to bother him anymore. He surprisingly went undrafted last year after going 7-2 with a 3.17 ERA in his first season at Southeast.

Southeast Missouri State starter Joey Lucchesi pitches to a Morehead State batter during the third inning Friday, March 18, 2016 at Capaha Field.Fred Lynch

"It adds a little level of nervousness, I think, any time that you are trying to impress people rather than just be yourself, but I think once he gets into the game I think he's able to block some of that out," Bieser says. "As of late, he's shown that more so than he did the first few times that it's happened to him, but now I think it's just very common for him. He knows that there's going to be people down watching him warmup before the game in the bullpen and his preparation, and there's going to be people following him all over and guys taking video constantly from this side and that side."

Lucchesi actually flourishes under pressure. He tells himself that his pitching is better than the hitters' hitting and that confidence has held up so far.

His ability to buckle down when he gets into a tight spot has helped him to his league-best 1.69 ERA. Opponents are batting .205 against him this season, he's walked just 27 batters and leads all of Division I baseball with 105 strikeouts.

"It just seems like every time that a runner moves into scoring position he finds another gear and he bears down and finds a way to get out of that," Bieser says. "On our staff he's probably the one guy that we really give a little bit more leniency to when there are tough situations."

When Lucchesi's in a jam, Bieser's first thought isn't to bring someone else in because he might be tired. It rarely crosses his mind, even when the pitch count is in triple digits, and he gives his ace the opportunity to escape on his own.

"We've seen it several times this year where he gets late in the game and he's throwing harder than he was throwing in the beginning because there's a situation, the adrenaline starts flowing and he really gets locked in," Bieser says. "I just think the tougher the situation, I think he bears down and becomes even better."

Mitchell saw that in his teammate before he even got to Cape Girardeau. The Southeast coaching staff asked him who else he'd recommend taking a look at from the Chabot roster, it wasn't a hard decision to bring up Lucchesi -- because of his talent, but also because he was a "good team guy."

"That's the most important thing," Mitchell says. "There's plenty of players out there with all the ability, but can they come into a program and kind of take on the culture and mindset that the team's about? And I didn't think that was going to be a problem for him, and his talent was just a huge plus along with the fact that he's able to get along with people and do what's expected and really just fit in to his role on this team."

Lucchesi's initial role was as a bullpen guy at the beginning of last season, but he struggled when he had to immediately be thrust into a situation on the mound. He moved into a starting role during the Redhawks' first conference series, which allowed him to get into his necessary routine, which includes beginning to warm up about 30 minutes earlier than most starting pitchers do. He excelled and has remained in the weekend rotation since.

Southeast Missouri State's Joey Lucchesi.Laura Simon

As well as he started out his senior campaign -- and the Redhawks' quest for a third consecutive OVC regular-season title -- it wasn't until last week that he'd put together a complete performance.

Rhodes and Lucchesi had spent the previous few weeks working on command of the curveball, and it paid off against Murray State.

"It's been there, but it's just been inconsistent," Rhodes says. "He was having a hard time of feeling the difference of being able to throw an off-speed pitch for a strike and then throwing it for a ball to get a swing and miss."

According to Rhodes, Lucchesi's bullpen session last Tuesday was OK and similar to how it had been the previous weeks, but something clicked by the time he warmed up in the Capaha Park bullpen before his Thursday night against the Racers.

"Coach Bieser asked me right before the National Anthem how he looked and I told him right then, 'I think he's got a chance to be pretty good tonight,'" Rhodes says, "and he went out and he threw like the Joey from last year with his off-speed pitches, but he had the fastball that he's had this year to go along with it. If Joey can get those three going down the stretch and put it all together, I mean, he's going to be really tough to hit."

Lucchesi allowed just one earned run on six hits against the Racers. He struck out a career-high and school record-tying 17 batters and issued just two walks.

It wasn't just his best start of the season, but also a start that impressed one of his toughest and most caring critics: his dad, Ken.

When the younger Lucchesi was too lazy to go outside and work on his game, Ken was the one that pushed him to play catch in the front yard and not be lazy; his son laughs when he says that he won't talk to his father if he doesn't pitch well, though he prefers that to his mom sympathizing with him after a bad outing.

"He's always thought I could be a good pitcher," Lucchesi says. "He always tells me I've never had a horrible season. He's always realistic if I'm horrible, like, 'Dude, you're horrible,' and that's good to hear because I want honesty on how my performance is.

"Thursday he said that's probably the best I've ever pitched in my life, and that really touched me because he's never really satisfied. But I can't be satisfied either. I've got to keep going."