"He’s never giving up, so why should I?" Cancer, baseball and a cherished father-son bond

Luca Perriello has experienced a lot over the last two years.

The 2024 Augusta Christian catcher committed to Virginia Tech as a sophomore and helped lead the Lions to a state championship as a junior. Now a senior in the middle of another state playoff run, Perriello signed his national letter of intent with the Hokies just last week.

There is no bigger fan of Luca’s work than his father, Jim, who had a front row seat to his son’s growth into a Division-I ballplayer.

“It’s exciting. He’s put in a lot of work, from the time he was 4 years old,” he said. “We’d go to the ballfield, he’d put on his little uniform and wear it all day long. He’s been the same way ever since.”

It was in the spring of 2022 when Jim received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. It came during Luca’s sophomore season, about the same time he committed to Virginia Tech.

Despite that, he still found his way to the ballpark to help Luca practice and watch him play every chance he could. As it turns out, that had as much, or more, to do with his development than anything that happened between the lines.

“He’s been just grinding ever since,” Luca said. “He did two or three rounds of chemo and he’s been hitting with me all the time. He’d have a chemo pouch on him and still throwing me batting practice. He never lets down and that gives me the drive to keep going. He’s never giving up, so why should I?”

For Jim, spending time with his son and watching him play baseball has been the best therapy any doctor could’ve prescribed.

“It gave me something to look forward to,” he said. “Talking to the doctors and stuff and they said, ‘Do what you do.’ That’s enjoy the game of baseball, watch him play and try to navigate it with the rest of my family. Everybody’s been supportive and they let me do my thing. It’s just a pleasure to watch him and his buddies play ball. It’s a fun time for me, that’s for sure.”

What Virginia Tech baseball is getting in 2024 catcher Luca Perriello

Luca passed up on schools like Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina, just to name a few.

“I had a lot of other schools looking at me, but Virginia Tech felt like home,” he said.

It’s not a stretch to say the switch-hitting backstop is the best we’ve seen in Augusta since Luis Campusano. In fact, anyone with a keen baseball eye will notice Luca’s tendencies and skills might look like another catching great in recent memory: former St. Louis Cardinal Yadier Molina.

No baserunner is safe, even if they’re not stealing. He’s just as liable to catch a runner at first base leaning as he is to throw him out at second.

“He’s literally one of my favorite players, ever,” Luca said of Molina. “I used to watch highlights of him throwing down and doing his back picks and stuff all the time. I just tried to work hard and master it like he did.”

For the true Molina comparison, a young catcher must be able to handle the pitching staff at an elite level. Luca demonstrated that during last year’s state championship run with his chemistry with 2023 lefty Jeb Bradford (now at College of Charleston).

That carried over to this year with senior right-hander Santiago Pacheco (a Southern Union signee), who tossed a complete game in a 1-0 win over Ben Lippen in the postseason opener.

“You’ve got to understand your pitcher. You’ve got to know who he is, you’ve got to know what he likes,” Luca said. “Especially with Jeb. Me and Jeb had that chemistry and he trusted me. At the beginning of the year me and Santiago had a little struggle to trust each other, but last night he trusted me and we got the job done. We’ve really developed together and that’s going to be a problem (for opposing teams) in the playoffs.”

An athletic catcher, many coaches have described Luca as a shortstop behind the plate. A switch-hitter at a premium position, along with his defensive ability, doesn’t come along very often. Virginia Tech got in on the ground floor and has likely found its next star in the CSRA.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: What Virginia Tech baseball is getting in 2024 catcher Luca Perriello