Baseball: McHenry pitcher Brandon Shannon commits to Louisville

Once McHenry pitcher Brandon Shannon visited the campus and saw the baseball facilities, he fell in love with Louisville.

Fortunately for Shannon, the feeling was mutual.

After the Cardinals saw him pitch twice this season for the Warriors, and saw the numbers he posted for McHenry, they wanted Shannon to come and enjoy using those facilities.

Shannon announced his commitment to Louisville via X on Monday. The 6-foot-3, 170-pound right-hander will be a senior this fall.

“My first-ever visit, I went to Louisville and I loved everything about it,” said Shannon, who also visited Northern Illinois and Illinois State. “All the facilities were great. I really liked ISU. I kind of thought I was going there for a little bit. But nothing compared to Louisville with what they have. I was pretty much sold the moment I finished that tour.”

Louisville’s staff had a coach at two of McHenry’s games this spring. Shannon was 10-0 over 60⅓ innings, with 82 strikeouts, a 1.86 ERA and a WHIP of 1.16. He was a Northwest Herald All-Area first-team selection, helping the Warriors to a 30-8 record and their second Class 4A sectional championship in school history.

Shannon has reached 91 mph on speed guns. Warriors coach Brian Rockweiler said he consistently hit between 87 and 89 mph and throws all his pitches for strikes.

“The coach said, ‘I really like his arm. I think it’s going to work,’ ” Rockweiler said. “They came back and watched him again and they liked that he threw strikes with multiple pitches, and he has a ton of room to grow.

“He was pretty consistent all year. He had no bad games. He was a horse, for sure.”

Shannon will be teammates with another Fox Valley Conference player, Hampshire left-hander Anthony Karbowski, who committed to Louisville last year.

Shannon’s family was able to lean on another former Warrior, who played for Louisville coach Dan McDonnell a few years ago, for advice.

Bobby Miller, the 2017 Northwest Herald Player of the Year, pitched for three seasons for the Cardinals and was drafted 20th overall by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2020 MLB First-Year Player Draft.

“My parents [Duane and Lisa] talked to Bobby’s parents [Robert and Tracy] a lot about Louisville,” Shannon said. “They talked about how much they were going to push me, more than anything else in my life, pretty much.”

Rockweiler said former Crystal Lake Central coach Andy Deain, who coaches with the GRB Rays travel program, and former Hampshire coach John Sarna also helped Shannon get noticed by Louisville.

Shannon was rewarded for his hard work as his recruitment picked up significantly during his junior year.

“All of a sudden things kind of exploded. I worked my tail off from beginning of sophomore year to the end of my sophomore year,” Shannon said. “The transfer from sophomore to junior year was crazy. That’s the most work I put in and got out.

“The recruitment started happening, I started getting coaches texting me. At first, it was a couple community colleges and I was very excited. A week goes by and D-I schools started and it ramped up so much. I was like, ‘Holy cow! I can actually do this.’ ”