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Fresh-Face Ace: Abrams Emerging on the Mound for Surging Ranney

Matt Manley|May 5, 2026|Last Updated May 5, 2026

Through the first seven games of the 2026 baseball season, Ranney could hardly find a pitcher to keep the team in games, much less one coach Pat Geroni and the rest of his team could call an ace.

Finally, someone stepped forward and pitched a standout game in Ranney’s eighth game of the season and although it was a loss, it changed the season for the Panthers.

Since his complete-game loss at Red Bank Catholic on April 16, freshman Jake Abrams has been more than just competent. He has indeed pitched like an ace.

In his fifth start of the season, Abrams pitched his first seven-inning complete game while earning his first win in a three-hit shutout that carried Ranney – the No. 9 seed in the Monmouth County Tournament – to a semifinal win over fifth-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven on Saturday at Hal Lorme Field.

Abrams out-dueled a fellow underclassman, sophomore Brady Williams, to pitch the Panthers to their second MCT championship appearance in the last four years. He struck out eight, walked two and finished the game on 97 pitches.

“The biggest thing for me is attacking with the fastball and getting ahead in counts,” Abrams said. “I want to stay away from walks. I want to trust my stuff. I know I can get outs with it and we have a great defense behind me.”

The three-hitter with 10 strikeouts and one walk in a 2-1 loss to RBC began a four-start run in which Abrams has posted a 1.83 ERA in 23 innings with 16 hits, six walks and 29 strikeouts during that stretch.

“It’s not the first season he has been in big environments,” Geroni said of Abrams. “He is one of the best arms in the club circuit in the Class of 2029. He has pitched at every major event, every major stage against teams that will eventually have 12 power four (college) commits and probably four draft picks. He is really seasoned even though he’s a freshman.”

Despite those impressive numbers for a freshman – or anyone else, for that matter – Abrams carried a 0-3 record heading into Saturday’s semifinal game at Rumson-Fair Haven and to change it, he had to beat a team that entered play 14-2 and was set to start a pitcher that also grabbed the reigns at the top of his team’s rotation as a freshman and has hardly let up as a sophomore. Williams led the Bulldogs in strikeouts (38) and ERA (1.27) as a freshman and this season, he has a 1.46 ERA with 40 strikeouts and eight walks in 28 2/3 innings.

“My first two outings were a little shaky,” Abrams said. “Just had to keep working. Somone needed to step up and I guess I was the one to do it.”

“We saw the potential in the preseason. He looked like a varsity one,” Geroni said. “He came out of the bullpen in his first few outings and, to be honest, it’s not something he has done a ton of in his life and he really struggled. His first start was Pascack Valley, who is a really tough team and we didn’t give him a lot of help behind him, but he threw a really good game. Since that Pascack Valley game, he has really been lights-out. The command is unreal. He’s got three pitches he can throw for strikes, and it’s really four because he can throw a slow curveball to go with the hard slider.”

Abrams needed just 43 pitches to navigate the first four innings of Saturday’s win and his offense backed him up with a run in the top of the fourth, which scored on a wild pitch with one out. Ranney appeared to break through on what appeared to be a sacrifice fly in the top of the second, but Rumson appealed the play at third base and the umpire ruled that junior Justin Kauffman left the base before the catch and was ruled out.

Kauffman atoned for the base-running mistake by keeping Abrams’s shutout intact in the bottom of the third inning, when he tracked a deep fly ball to rightfield by Rumson senior D.J. Ylagan and made a leaping catch to prevent the ball from clearing the fence for a solo home run that would have given Rumson a 1-0 lead.

Abrams’ lone lapse of control came in the fifth inning. The Ranney rookie walked the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters with two out and went to a full count with leadoff hitter Miles Martin, but got him to pop up to junior shortstop Ricky Lopez for the final out of the inning.

Lopez had a busy Saturday in the field, handling all seven chances hit to him – all in the first five innings. The Louisiana State University commit also drove in the second Ranney run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth inning.

Ranney peppered Rumson’s pitching with 10 hits but could not add a third run, with the appeal play at third in the second inning and an inning-ending pick-off at second base in the fourth serving as a pair of base-running miscues that contributed to the Panthers’ struggles to score more runs for Abrams. Ranney also loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but junior Brady Dill got out of trouble with a strikeout and a fly out to centerfielder Jack Gyimesi.

While Williams and Dill kept Rumson in the game on the mound, it was not enough to beat Abrams. The freshman went back out for the seventh inning with 77 pitches and after surrendering a leadoff single, struck out the next two batters that stepped into the box. Junior Lloyd Bush lifted Abrams’s last pitch in the air to right field, where Kauffman squeezed it for the final out, sending Ranney to the MCT final for the first time since its thrilling, walk-off win over Red Bank Catholic in the 2023 final.

“He is really difficult to get off the mound,” Geroni said of Abrams. “If you go out to the mound, he will tell you to go back to the dugout. He is a 67-percent strike-thrower and he tends to get a lot of ground balls and strikeouts in four pitches. So his pitch count is typically down, but we extended him a little bit (Saturday).”

When Ranney plays Howell Tuesday, Abrams will not be available to pitch, but the Panthers will have the rest of their staff – Kauffman, junior J.L. Gallina and senior Noah Hynes – available thanks to Abrams’s complete game on Saturday.

With appearances this season against Brooklyn powerhouse Poly Prep, Pascack Valley (11-5), Christian Brothers Academy, Red Bank Catholic and Manalapan, Abrams has already faced high-level high school competition. Ranney has had quality pitching over the past five seasons under Geroni, but Abrams has burst onto the scene like no other Panthers pitcher has at this early stage of development.

“It’s all about having the right mindset and being prepared,” Abrams said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the number one team in the Shore, the number one team in the state. I’m going out there and competing.”

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