By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

Former Ocean Springs High School standout Garrett Crochet made South Mississippi history earlier this week.
Crochet struck out 11 Colorado Rockies batters in seven innings of work Sunday afternoon at Comiskey Park in Chicago as his White Sox fell to Colorado 5-4 in a 14-inning affair.
The 11 strikeouts by the southpaw vaulted him to the top of the current chart in Major League Baseball in that department and Crochet becomes the first player with ties to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to lead MLB in strikeouts at any point in a season.
Crochet leads the majors with 141 strikeouts in 101 1/3 innings. He was charged with two runs and five hits in his latest outing and was not involved in the final decision.
“I thought Crochet did a really good job of just pitching today,” Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said. “He started off with absolute great stuff. His fastball was really good.”

Crochet overtook the strike out lead from Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Tyler Gasnow, who is second with 136 as he prepared to take the hill Wednesday night. Claude Passeau led the National League in strikeouts in 1939, but his total of 139 was 107 less than Bob Feller’s mark of 246 that paced MLB.
On Wednesday, for his efforts, Crochet was named American League Pitcher of the Month for June, according to a press release from the team.
Crochet went 1-1 with a 1.91 ERA over 37.2 innings pitched with six walks and 56 strikeouts over six starts in June to become the first White Sox pitcher to receive the award since Dylan Cease did so in June and July 2022.
On the month, he led MLB in strikeouts and ranked among the AL leaders in ERA (4th) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4th, 9.33). Crochet’s 56 strikeouts were the second-highest total in June by a Sox pitcher behind Chris Sale, who had 75 in 2015.

In his first season as a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball, Crochet is 6-6 with a 3.02 ERA over 101.1 innings pitched with 20 walks, 141 strikeouts (12.52 per 9.0 IP) and a 0.93 WHIP over 18 starts this season.
He currently leads MLB in strikeouts, strikeout percentage (35.3%) and strikeouts per 9.0 IP, and ranks among Major League leaders in WHIP (3rd), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5th, 7.05) and opponents’ batting average (6th, .198).
Crochet is the only MLB pitcher since at least 1901 to record 140-plus strikeouts with 20 walks or less over his first 18 career starts.