St. Laurence’s Jimmy Benson started playing golf about 18 months ago, but he decided to test his development last fall by joining the high school team.
At 6-foot-8, Benson cut an imposing figure on the course, even if the game did not always flow naturally like the junior left-hander’s talent as a pitcher in baseball.
“I’m not very good at golf,” Benson said. “But I just like being competitive.”
And when it comes to being on the mound?
“My goal every time out is to throw up a zero,” he said. “I don’t think about anything else. I just try my best not to let anybody on base because I know how dangerous we are when get guys on.”
Benson didn’t let anybody get on Saturday. The TCU commit threw a perfect game with five strikeouts for the host Vikings in a 5-0 victory over Oak Lawn in the Class 4A St. Laurence Regional final in Burbank.
Junior catcher Tristan Steger added a two-run double for the top-seeded Vikings (35-2), who play fourth-seeded Mount Carmel (27-10) at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a Brother Rice Sectional semifinal.
Senior infielder Mickey Lotus added an RBI bunt single and scored the first run by stealing home. He also made two defensive plays in the seventh inning to preserve the perfect game.
Junior starter Hamza Abdelfattah and senior reliever Eli Kulpinski combined for four strikeouts and allowed just one hit for Oak Lawn (26-11) before the Vikings broke out with a four-run sixth.
Benson moved his record to 7-1 and threw his second career no-hitter. He beat Mount Carmel 9-0 on May 10, 2025, going 6 2/3 innings. He threw strikes on 58 of his 84 pitches against Oak Lawn.
“When he’s throwing strikes, he’s obviously very good and very talented,” St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus said. “He’s perfect when he’s pounding the zone like that and keeping hitters off-balance.
“We knew the day he stepped in here he was going to be a really successful pitcher. Off the field, he’s a fun-loving guy. When he crosses the line, he’s a really intense guy.”
Before the game even began, Steger recognized that Benson was in a wholly different zone.
“There’s always that level of confidence behind the plate whenever Jimmy’s on the mound,” Steger said. “I know even when we start playing catch it’s going to be a tough day for the opposing team.
“I didn’t have to say anything to him as long as he was just staying with himself and pitching his game.
Benson only went to three balls in the count one time.
“I’ve never played them before,” he said. “Most teams, when it’s my first time playing them, they don’t like fastballs with all the movement. My fastball goes both ways in different movements.
“That’s hard to hit the first time.”
Benson also played basketball when he was younger. But with his size and throwing left-handed, he knew where his future rested.
“I’ve been big since I was little,” he said. “I saw a video in my camera roll recently where I was a foot taller than everybody else as a 9-year-old. At about 12 or 13, I realized how good I could be.
“I wasn’t throwing very hard then, but I was still getting everybody out throwing 80 mph.”
Benson, who finished 11-1 last year in leading St. Laurence to the Class 3A state championship, was happy about finally pitching a perfect game for the Vikings.
“I was close a couple of times, but I only got to the fifth inning,” he said. “The most important thing (Saturday) is we won. That’s the goal every time — that we keep going and keep moving.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
