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Above C Level: St. Rose Baseball Pacing Division Field After Wild, Bounceback Win

Matt Manley|April 17, 2026|Last Updated April 17, 2026

WALL TWP. — Two standout starting pitchers have been the St. Rose baseball team’s ticket to the cusp of the program’s first outright Shore Conference division championship since 2018, but to kick down the door, the Purple Roses needed more than to simply hand the ball to one of senior Peter Nolan or classmate James Alesso.

This week’s pivotal Shore Conference Class C South division series vs. Lacey displayed as much and to emerge from that series with a split and a one-game lead in the race for the division title, the Purple Roses needed to execute in the clutch at the plate and in the field.

It took three straight two-out, RBI hits for St. Rose to put four runs on the board in Wednesday’s fifth inning and later a well-executed relay to cut down the potential tying run at the plate for the final out of a 7-6 Purple Roses win over Lacey at Fletcher Fields. The win was a necessary answer for St. Rose after Lacey handed the Purple Roses their first loss of the season Monday, 3-0, by beating Nolan, the University of Pittsburgh commit.

“I think we needed a wake-up call there,” said Nolan, who is 2-1 with a 0.74 ERA, 36 strikeouts and nine walks in 15 innings so far this season. “I think losing kind of sparked the idea that all these games aren’t going to be handed to us. We have to go out and earn them, so I think losing, as bad as it was, woke us up and got us ready to play.”

Senior catcher Lucas Ferlise was in the middle of the two most critical moments of the game. He hit the first of the three consecutive RBI hits in the fifth — a two-out, two-run double down the leftfield line that put St. Rose ahead, 5-1. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, he held his ground on the game-clinching play at the plate by catching the accurate relay throw from first baseman Joe Loschiavo and applying the tag on Lacey senior Russell Davies, who did not slide after the throw home beat him by several strides.

“He was coming in hot, new he didn’t have it,” Ferlise said. “His last-ditch effort was to try to light me up and hit the ball out of my hand, but that was not going to happen. No way.”

From the video, it is not clear if Davies was intentionally trying to dislodge the ball or if he chose not to slide and simply braced himself for contact with Ferlise at home plate.

After Lacey ace Zach Lodge and his team bested St. Rose with Nolan on the mound Monday, Alesso took the ball attempting to pitch his team to a win. In his first two starts of the season, Alesso allowed a combined six hits and three walks while striking out 29 in 13 innings — all without allowing an earned run. Despite falling behind to six of the nine batters during his first turn through the order on Wednesday, Alesso carved through Lacey’s lineup during the first three innings, retiring all nine batters on 37 pitches with five strikeouts.

“Honestly, it wasn’t my best stuff,” Alesso said. “But I found a way to work through it. I got some help from the field, I got some help from the bats so that made it easier for me. I think it was a confidence booster that I came in, wasn’t feeling that great and I was still able to get outs.”

“It was his third time out,” St. Rose coach Rich Lanko said. “I thought his fastball was pretty good. It seemed like he was struggling with his breaking ball a little bit, maybe gripping it too tight because he is usually in the zone more with it. But he worked through it, did a good job.”

All the while, St. Rose scratched two runs across in the bottom of the first and one more in the third for a 3-0 lead through three. The return of Nolan to the batting order after a two-week hitting absence due to a sore non-throwing shoulder boosted the top of the Purple Roses lineup, with Nolan going 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored, including in the first inning. Nolan has still played shortstop through his injury and played a clean game at the position again on Wednesday.

“To be able to do what we did without one of the best hitters in the Shore, it’s been great,” Lanko said. “Other guys have been stepping up. (Nick) Ferrante has been in the leadoff spot and really helped us out there. It was exciting to have him back, but I was also nervous because he came out swinging like a maniac on opening day, which is when he hurt himself. You could see he was holding back a little bit more today, but he had some good at-bats and just having him in the lineup helps a lot.”

Senior Nick Ferrante closed the game on the mound, but first made his mark on the win with a double in the first inning to set up a sacrifice fly by Alesso, then scored on a wild pitch.

Alesso made it three pitchers delivering a the plate when he scalded a two-out line drive that went off the glove of centerfielder Ryan Brewer and scored Jake Whitehead from first base, with Alesso motoring all the way to third.

“That was huge to set the tone early, put up runs in the first inning and keep them off the board those first few innings,” Nolan said. “We were able to get the runners in from third early and then it was some clutch hitting with two outs by a bunch of the guys after that.”

After the perfect start, Alesso finally ran into trouble in the fourth inning, beginning with two one-out walks and a single by Joe Geiger that broke up the no-hitter. Lacey senior Logan Resetar was a menace all game and he broke up the shutout with a line drive, RBI single.

The St. Rose two-out magic in the fifth provided its pitching with a six-run cushion, with Ferlise knocking in the first two, followed by RBI hits from junior Mike Yorke and sophomore second baseman Ryan McCarthy. Yorke’s hit was his second of the game and McCarthy slammed a double to the leftfield fence to make it 7-1.

Resetar tightened up the game with a two-run home run to chase Alesso with two out in the top of the sixth, which made the score, 7-4. One batter earlier, Geiger drove in a run with a single for the lone Lacey RBI not credited to Resetar, who finished 3-for-4 with five RBI.

“Those guys are dogs over there and the top of the lineup was coming up so I knew it wasn’t done yet,” Ferlise said. “He had to keep throwing strikes, making plays. I had to get in there, frame pitches, block balls, never take an inning off. I had to make sure our pitchers were calm and collected. Nick came out and he did find it in time.”

Lacey loaded the bases against Ferrante with one out in the top of the seventh and he picked up a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch for the second out. That brought up Resetar, who fought his way to 3-2 and gave the three baserunners a chance to move on Ferrante’s delivery. Resetar lined a base hit into centerfield, easily scoring Brayden Messina from third and Evan Goldberg from second. After a bobble in centerfield by Tristan Ferlise, Lacey coach Adam Taha waved Davies around third in an attempt to score the tying run but Ferlise made a strong throw to Loschiavo, who fired an accurate relay to Lucas Ferlise for the game-ending tag.

“It was a perfect throw into Joe behind the mound,” Lucas Ferlise said. “At that point, I was like, ‘Oh, he is gunned. Coach sent him, perfect throw from Joe, I had time to set my feet, collect it, two hands on the glove and just lay the tag down.”

Loschiavo — a junior transfer who played at Jackson Liberty last season — also scooped a low throw out of the dirt at first base for the first out of the seventh inning.

“We stayed confident and stayed relaxed as a team,” Alesso said. “Even though we weren’t in the best spot, we still found a way to execute a play to win the game and back up our teammate.”

St. Rose started the season 4-0 and in its fourth win, the Purple Roses held on for a 6-5 victory over New Egypt after taking a 6-0 lead, a similar finish to Wednesday’s win over Lacey. The two narrow wins and a loss suggest there is more work to be done, but inserting Nolan back into the leadoff spot after he did not take an at-bat after his first two at-bats on opening day is a significant addition.

“I think we were just a little flat going into the last game, probably a little too comfortable,” Alesso said. “They took it to us, we didn’t really hit the ball and it was just extra motivation to practice hard (Tuesday) and focus.”

The Purple Roses will now have to balance chasing their first division championship in eight years with making noise in the Monmouth County Tournament, which will begin with a game at Rumson-Fair Haven. St. Rose has yet to play a game outside of Class C South divisional play, but with a top-of-the-rotation that measures up with many of the one-two punches throughout the Shore, the Purple Roses figure to fair well in tournament play if Nolan or Alesso are available.

“I feel like we are overlooked from a pitching standpoint,” Nolan said. “We have a ton of good guys in here and I know whether it’s James starting or me starting, we feel like we can compete with anybody. It’s just on us to provide the defense and provide the run support.”

“Having those two guys is huge for us,” Lanko said. “We have limited pitching, so our game plan has been to lean on them and then Nick and Joe Ferrante have done a solid job coming in to back them up. If we can get those quality relief innings, we really like our chances with Pete and James starting games for us.”

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