It was not the typical start to the high school baseball season for the perennially strong Tigers of Memorial High School. There were losses to Montclair Kimberley Academy and Emerson, of all schools. Throw in the defeat to St. Peter’s Prep and Memorial had a less-than-stellar 2-3 record after five games.
"We lost most of our pitching from last year," said long-time Memorial head coach Tony Ferrainolo, winner of more than 500 games in his tenure as the mentor of the Tigers. "The one guy who we figured would be our No. 1 pitcher [Adel Acosta] didn’t have the preseason we thought he would have. His mechanics were all off, so we had to adjust to using other pitchers. Then, our infield defense wasn’t what we were used to. We were making a lot of mental mistakes defensively."
So the uncharacteristic record called for drastic measures.
"It was time to roll up the sleeves and do some coaching," Ferrainolo said.
That’s a little change of pace for Ferrainolo. After all, when you’ve been as successful as Ferrainolo has been for as long as he has, teams tend to coach themselves. When you win such prestigious accolades as a national championship (1988) and achieve countless local championships, the reputation does the majority of the work.
But not anymore. When you own a 2-3 record and you’re staring at one of those unforeseen seasons of oblivion, you do one of two things. Either accept the demise or change things in a hurry. Ferrainolo chose the latter.
"We could have easily turned into a team that wouldn’t have made either the state or county playoffs," Ferrainolo said. "Plus, we lost our catcher [Wilson Giraldo] to a badly bruised collarbone. Honestly, we weren’t a good basketball team at that point. I knew we had ability, but we weren’t showing it. We had to get them thinking in the Memorial way of playing baseball."
After the Tigers split their next two games to push the record to 3-4, Ferrainolo had a sense that the team was coming around.
"We lost to Bayonne, but I saw that we could play with the top teams after that game," Ferrainolo said. "We were playing better. Adel started to come around. I think he just needed some extra time to get going."
Since that time, the Tigers have not lost. They’ve won 14 straight games to get to 17-4 and put themselves in a very familiar position, namely in place to win both the HCIAA and NJSIAA Section 1, Group IV state championships. Just like old times.
"They had to have pride in themselves," Ferrainolo said. "Pride in playing good solid fundamental baseball. They weren’t doing that to start the year. They were doing it as the season went on. We started hitting the ball, pitching the ball and catching the ball. Things fell into place."
Getting Giraldo back to man the backstop was a major key. Since he’s been back in the lineup, the junior catcher has eight hits in his last 12 at-bats.
Junior Andy Luna has been swinging a hot bat, collecting a .455 average thus far. Junior third baseman Wilfredo Del Valle has been consistent, stroking the ball at a .430 clip.
Football star Rudy Delgado is displaying his talents on the baseball diamond as well. The senior right fielder is hitting only .310, but he’s getting on base, stealing bases, scoring runs and causing general havoc on the basepaths.
"He has great speed and has been using it well," Ferrainolo said.
Another key player has been junior Steve Schlitzer, who is the first baseman and team’s No. 2 hurler behind Acosta.
"Steve’s a bulldog, a great competitor," Ferrainolo said. "He believes he can win every time he takes the ball."
Junior Luis Fernandez is the Tigers’ starting shortstop and has also been a savior on the mound, posting a 5-1 pitching record.
"We’ve just gone out and played hard," Ferrainolo said. "To go from being mediocre to what we can now say is a good baseball team is a major accomplishment. We’re now where we want to be. As the playoffs begin next week, we’re playing the kind of baseball we’re known for."
It’s called Memorial baseball. Just like old times. – Jim Hague