Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
Pitching will be the difference this spring for the Howell High School baseball team.
“We scored a lot of runs last year, but our pitching came up a little short,” Howell coach Eric Johnson said. “[Senior pitcher] Mike [Wynne] was the one guy that was very stable in the rotation. We had seven wins last year, and five of them were to his credit.”
The success of the Howell pitching staff could result in the Rebels improving on their 7-15 finish in 2017.
“We want see these guys throw more strike than we did last year,” Johnson said. “We want to see them really pound the strike zone. We’ve seen some guys do that in the pre-season, which is exciting. I’ve got some younger guys that have shown that they can do it too. So, if we can do that, our bats will be there to score the runs to win the game. That only happens if we can command the zone. If not, we’ll be in the same place we were last year. But we expect things to be different this year.”
Wynne touched on the importance of the pitching staff that he is the leader of .
“I think we definitely need to focus on pitching,” Wynne said. “We scored a lot of runs last year, but we just couldn’t pitch well enough to win. I think we gave up the most runs in the conference last year, but we scored the third most. So, we know the bats are there, we just have to pound the zone and get those outs.”
Johnson will call upon some veteran pitchers and hitters to deliver this spring.
“Nick Ruszczyk is a three-year starter for us,” Johnson said. “He had some big hits for us last year, and we’re expecting the same for him this year. He’s a guy we’re going to look for to drive in a lot of runs for us this year. Ryan Bearse played well for us today. We think with him and Wynne at the top of our rotation, they’re going to do some really good things. The other senior left-handed pitcher is John Limaldi. He’s at a really good spring and I think he can do big things for us this year.”
Another notable Rebel will be senior shortstop Eddie Morales, a three-sport standout.
Morales was the starting quarterback on the football team and the starting point guard during the basketball season.
The Rebels were scheduled to start their season on March 31 at Donovan Catholic High School in Toms River.
Howell clashes with rival Manalapan High School on April 6. The game time for the start in Manalapan is at 3:45 p.m.
