With four Tri-County Conference games scheduled next week, St. Bede baseball coach Bill Booker was looking for another arm to round out the Bruins’ rotation.

He found one Friday.

Senior AJ Hermes threw a two-hit shutout, striking out 10 batters and walking two to lead the Bruins to a 2-0 nonconference victory over Serena in Peru.

“We really needed that outing from AJ, because we’ve got conference games stacked up the next couple weeks, and we’ve got to have one more guy,” Booker said. “Today he answered that question.

“He found his curveball early. He was hitting spots. I was real proud of his effort today.”

Hermes started strong as he struck out the side around a double in the first inning and struck out the side again in the second around a walk.

After his second-inning walk, Hermes retired nine batters in a row before allowing his second and final hit of the game with one out in the fifth. He induced a popout and a flyout around a walk to get out of the fifth before setting down the final six batters, including a strikeout to end the game.

“I just got ahead with first-pitch strikes,” Hermes said. “I made them put it in play with my defense behind me.

“Early, my curveball was coming to me. That helped. I lost it a little later, and then it came back to me at the end. It felt good.”

Hermes’ outing continued a string of recent strong performances on the mound for the Bruins, who have won their last eight games.

St. Bede has recorded four shutouts during the streak and has held seven of the eight opponents to three runs or less with the exception of an 8-5 win over Roanoke-Benson/Lowpoint-Washburn on Thursday.

“The key is throwing strikes and playing decent defense,” Booker said. “The other night against Roanoke-Benson we had one bad inning where we had a few walks, and they got a key hit to tie it. But other than that, Monday and Tuesday we didn’t walk a guy, and today we limited our walks. It’s a matter of not giving free passes and playing good defense behind you.

“We’ve had really good pitching efforts all week long.”

The Bruins didn’t have a ton of offense Friday with six hits but managed to push across a couple runs.

Carson Riva doubled to center field with one out in the second and scored on an RBI double by Chase Riva. In the third, Geno Dinges doubled to left and later scored when Hermes reached on an error.

“That’s going to happen,” Booker said about the slow night offensively. “Sometimes you hit them right at them. There were a couple baserunning things. One of them was on me. We can do a better job on the bases as well as not trying to pull everything. We’re going to try to go the other way with a few things, and that will help us.

“We’ve been hitting the ball pretty well this week up until today and having good at-bats, so chalk this one up to just not squaring some things up.”

Serena pitchers Ryne DeBernardi and Payton Twait had a strong day as well. DeBernardi was the losing pitcher, as he gave up two earned runs on four hits with one strikeout and no walks in two innings. Twait threw four scoreless innings, allowing two hits, striking out two and walking one.

Nate Kelley hit a double to right field, and Cash Raikes singled to right for the Huskers’ only two hits.

“That’s a quality team, and to hold them to two runs is a moral victory in our book,” Serena coach Jeremy Foreman said. “Our two pitchers were outstanding. They threw strikes, kept baserunners to a minimum and gave us a chance. We just couldn’t get the bats going, couldn’t string some hits together to put us on the board.

“But overall I’m pleased with our effort today. I’m very encouraged going forward about how we did today.”

St. Bede (13-6, 5-0 Tri-County) will have key conference games next week. The Bruins play at Roanoke-Benson/Lowpoint-Washburn (11-6, 4-4 TCC) on Monday, at Marquette (18-0, 8-0) on Tuesday, home against Marquette on Thursday and home against Dwight (4-6, 9-9) on Friday.

“We’re excited,” Hermes said. “We just want to play good baseball and play as a team,” Hermes said. “(To be successful we need to be) just like we’ve been these last couple games, just get some quality pitching, play good defense and get some hits.”

Serena (7-4) plays Saturday at home against Gardner-South Wilmington and starts a two-game Little Ten Conference series Monday at home against Somonauk.

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St. Bede pitcher AJ Hermes lets go of a throw to Serena on Friday, April 24, 2026 at St. Bede Academy. (Scott Anderson)