By Rich Fisher, Contributing Editor
If the two certainties in life are death and taxes, a close third may be that if a baseball team doesn’t have good pitching, it’s not going to succeed.
That third one is taken care of at St. Rose, Belmar, High School this spring, as the Purple Roses staff is among the Shore Conference’s best.
St. Rose has a team earned run average of 2.61 with 156 strikeouts and just 58 walks in 104-2/3 innings. Three hurlers average over 10 strikeouts per seven innings – the length of a high school game.
The result, which has been aided by a revitalized hitting attack, led to an 11-5 record entering a May 7 contest at Neptune. The Roses won the Shore Conference C South Division with a 9-1 record.
Having those arms has to make a coach feel good.
“It’s great,” St. Rose skipper Rich Lanko said. “We haven’t had that in a while. They pitched well last year we just didn’t help them out offensively and got off to a bad start. It’s been great having those two guys starting even Ferrante as a number three starter and a reliever, and his brother Nick relieving for us has been great.”
The “two guys” are seniors Peter Nolan and James Allesso, the third starter is Joe Ferrante, while his junior brother Nick is the team’s closer.
“Pete and James pitched really well last year but when they pitched, we didn’t hit, we made errors we didn’t help them out,” Lanko said. “Joe Ferrante also pitched really well for us last year.”
Nolan is committed to pitch at the University of Pittsburgh. Through six appearances he was 3-1 with a 1.56 ERA and 65 strikeouts with 18 walks in 27 innings. His fastball sits around 90 MPH but his improvement the past two seasons was due to his ability to mix things up.
“He has really good command of his off-speed – his curveball and his change-up,” Lanko said. “He’s able to locate them at any time and keep kids off-balance. He’s really becoming a pitcher, not throwing everything so hard all the time. He’s able to pace himself. We get five or six innings every time. he goes out. That’s been huge.
“He’s still getting a lot of strikeouts (16.9 per seven innings). It’s not just max effort (fastball) every time. I tell him, “You can’t go out there striking out 16 guys every game, it gets your pitch count up. Sometimes you gotta pitch to contact so we get a little more out of you.’”
Alesso, who’s still undecided on college, was 4-1 through five starts. In 27 innings he had a 2.59 ERA with 48 strikeouts (12.44 per seven) and just 13 walks.
“He has a great tempo,” Lanko said. “He has great command of his stuff. He’s throwing 85 consistently. He’s increased his velocity every year. So that’s been huge to go to his fastball when he gets in trouble.
“But he also has great command of his curveball. He can throw it whenever he wants, it keeps guys off balance and he just has a great pace. He stays on hitters, never gives them a breath.”
Joe Ferrante can start, relieve, and be good in any situation. The Ocean County Community College-bound senior is 3-1 with a 1.73 ERA through 28-1/3 innings. A contact pitcher, he threw a complete game in a win at Matawan May 6.
“Joe just gets guys out,” Lanko said. “He’s got a good change-up. He’s been working on a slider that’s really good. Nobody hits him hard. He gets weak groundballs, weak pop-ups. He’s very efficient. They can’t hit him. If we have three or four games in a week he’ll start a game. He’s coming in in relief. He’s doing everything depending on the week.”
Younger brother Nick is the late-inning hammer. He was 1-1 with 21 strikeouts in 14 innings.
“He’s been a huge addition because now we have a reliever to come in and back up Peter and James,” Lanko said. “He probably throws 82 with his fastball. He’s got a great breaking ball, and it’s been huge for us. His breaking ball is very slow, so his fastball gets on you and looks like it’s a lot harder than it is. He can really keep guys off balance.”
Senior Jake Whitehead is a spot starter and reliever, and is the staff’s lone lefthander, while sophomore Tristan Ferlise has shown good potential and “gives us another option.”
The pitchers are also the team’s top hitters. Nolan leads the way at .463, followed by Nick Ferrante (.436), Alesso (.426), Joe Ferrante (.353) and Whitehead (.318). Lucas Ferlise (.426) and Ryan McCarthy (.300) are also offensive contributors.
With so many strong arms and a lineup that tends to produce big hits when necessary, Lanko is looking forward to the Shore Conference Tournament, which begins next week, and the state tournament.
“I think we can compete with anybody in the Shore and make a run,” the coach said. “Our first goal is to go after the Conference. I told them we’re not gonna schedule any other games in between because I think we’ve got a good shot at winning the conference.
“We have the pitching to hang with anybody and offensively I think we can compete with anybody. That’s the goal moving forward.”
