Former Chabot pitcher Joey Lucchesi turns heads with Padres

A former Chabot baseball walk-on, Joey Lucchesi made his third career start with the San Diego Padres memorable at hitter-friendly Coors Field on April 10.

Lucchesi, a 6-foot-5 and 204-pound left-hander, earned his first big league victory pitching six excellent innings in a 5-2 win over the Colorado Rockies. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out eight over six-plus innings.

This season the Newark Memorial High graduate is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.72 over 15.2 innings, allowing 12 hits with 16 strikeouts and four walks.

"It's fun to watch him pitch," Padres manager Andy Green told MLB.com of the 24-year-old Lucchesi. "He competes, he's not afraid, throws his pitches with conviction and stays incredibly focused the whole game."

Green loved Lucchesi’s locked-in demeanor, and Lucchesi was unfazed by pitching the Coors Field launch pad for the first time.

"I thought it was going to be really freezing, but luckily, my day was a bit warmer than yesterday," Lucchesi told MLB.com. "I didn't ask about it. I just came here and said, 'I'm going to do my job.' The balls were more slippery than usual, and I needed to get rosin every other pitch, it felt like. It helped out with my grip, and I was able to hit my spots."

Lucchesi played at Chabot in 2012-14 after seeing limited amounts of baseball in high school. He was named to the All-Northern California team following his sophomore at Chabot, on a team ranked No. 1 in Northern California.

He earned a scholarship to Southeast Missouri State, where he led his team to a NCAA Regional at Texas A&M. He graduated with honors and was a fourth round draft pick in the MLB Amateur 2016 Draft.

“Joey is the epitome of our community college student-athletes,” said Steve Friend, his former coach at Chabot.