The first three weeks of the 2021 summer has been nothing short of magical for the Savannah Bananas, who are off to a 10-0 start and legitimately look like they’ll never lose again.
Leading the charge for the Nanners has been starting pitcher Kyle Luigs, who was named the CPL Pitcher of the Week on Monday following his stellar outing against the Macon Bacon on June 11.
While the Bananas offense has been stellar—leading the CPL in both runs (72) and walks (66)— they scored just one run in that June 11 game. That didn’t matter one bit to Luigs, who went 6.0 scoreless innings pitched while striking out nine and allowing just one hit, no runs and no walks.
“It’s awesome any time you get recognized like that. This team is a lot of fun to play on. Obviously, we’re 10-0 and we’re winning a lot of ball games, but we’ve got a lot of interesting people, interesting group of guys on this team that makes it a lot of fun to show up to the park every day,” Luigs said Monday in a phone interview. “Winning a personal accolade just adds to the level of fun we have.”
Luigs has been on fire since the start of the 2021 season. We’re talking Supa Hot Fire, Ben Stiller’s Scorcher levels. On the young summer, Luigs has a CPL-leading 21 strikeouts in 15.0 innings pitched while allowing just two hits, one run and seven walks thus far. His 0.60 ERA is the second-lowest among pitchers with at least 15.0 innings pitched under their belt this summer.
If you’ve seen the movie “Zoolander,” there’s only one way to describe the way Luigs has been shoving.
If you haven’t seen the movie “Zoolander” one, what have you been doing for the past 20 years and two, it’s a classic. But I digress.
In his fourth summer as a Banana, the lifestyle and expectations that come with the “Fans First” ideology in Bananaland have become something of second nature for Luigs. Being able to focus on something other than the game during the game has helped him play without stress.
“It kind of helps me in a way. It takes my mind off of things,” Luigs said. “It kind of turns it into a kid’s game like when you’re playing when you were 10 years old, carefree, and just not focus too much on the outcome.”
Speaking of the shenanigans and tributes that go on at Grayson Stadium, Luigs gave us some insight into his favorites over the last four summers.
“There have been a lot. I’d say a lot of the music videos that we’ve done have been fun over the summer. The one we did last summer when we were downtown, I think it was ‘The Boys are Back in Town.’ That one was really fun,” Luigs said.
Another includes the “Salute to the Troops” the Bananas do every home game, giving tribute to the men and women who are or have served in the armed forces.
“The in-game promotions that I’ve enjoyed the most when the dads or soldiers are coming home early from overseas and surprising kids before the game started. Piggybacking off that, we always to a salute to the troops every top of the fifth inning,” Luigs said. “Everyone who has served stands up in the stadium, and that’s just a really cool moment. Most of the time it gives me chills.”
The Bananas are looking to keep their winning ways going and with Luigs leading the way, it’s going to be a long summer for the rest of the CPL.