Knights Looking To Build On Regional Semifinal Appearance

Monarch enjoyed its best season in school history last year, going 19-5. The Knights won the District 7A-15 title and advanced to the regional semifinal, losing to perennial powerhouse Nova.

A senior-laden team and pitcher who won 10 games were the keys to success for the Knights. With those seniors gone, Monarch finds itself looking to its younger players this year who have been waiting in the wings for their time to shine.

“Last season, we had a lot of senior leadership,” Monarch coach Joe Franco said. “This year, we graduated eight seniors, five of those were starters, and we lost a couple of other kids going to other schools. We basically have a lot of kids who were primarily backups last year coming in, and if they do what they gotta do, they can get a chance to start.”

Among the seniors who graduated were pitchers Andrew Pierson and David Webb.

Pierson was the team’s ace, throwing 67 innings and going 10-3 with 72 strikeouts and a 1.57 ERA. Webb went just 2-1, but he threw 31.1 innings and struck out 49 while posting a 1.34 ERA.

Andrew Rohloff, a sophomore last year who went 4-1 with 54 strikeouts and a 1.66 ERA in 38 innings, is the team’s top returning pitcher. Rohloff also was the team’s top hitter with a .400 average.

Nick Alonzo, a junior who threw just six innings last year, striking out 14, will be looked upon to pitch more this year as well as play first base. Franco also is high on Joey Gerber, whom Franco said “did a lot of good things for the JV team last year and hopefully can eat up some of those innings that we lost from the seniors.”

“To replace a guy like [Pierson], 10 wins, 70 innings, it’s going to be tough, but we got Alonzo to pitch a little more this year and kind of hold down first base and really kind of hopefully be our power source on offense,” Franco said.

Alonzo, who hit .327 last year as one of the team’s top hitters, said he’s ready to step up this year.

“I’m looking to throw more innings than last year and just get outs,” Alonzo said. “That’s all you can do to help the team win the game.”

Another big bat coming back is Gino Poliandro, who hit .377 and was “flawless at second base,” Franco said. Poliandro is being shifted to short stop this year to make up for the loss of James Buckley to Coral Springs Christian.

“Offensively, I think it’s going to be tough for us,” Franco said. “I think we’re going to have some kids in the lineup who have never faced varsity pitching. We’re definitely going to have to rely on situational hitting and team speed, making sure we’re having productive at-bats. We’re really going to have to rely on that along with good pitching and good solid defense in order to give ourselves a chance to win.”

Although pitching and offense may be areas where the Knights will have work to do this year, Franco expects defense to be a team strength despite the loss of Josh Mila to graduation. Mila was “a rock behind the plate,” Franco said.

So with players such as Mila gone, the attention turns to players who maybe haven’t gotten much playing time but are ready for the challenge of helping Monarch turn in another solid season and keep the momentum going.

“Now you have a lot of younger kids who are older and they’re going to want to prove that it wasn’t just the seniors winning last year, it wasn’t just Pierson winning 10 games. They have a little chip on their shoulder. They want to show that Monarch baseball can still be competitive even though we graduating eight seniors. So I think that’s going to be one of the biggest keys for us, realizing that all these kids are getting their chances now, and it’s put up or shut up. It’s their time.”

One of the things Franco tries to instill in his players even during the fall is winning. He said some coaches may not share his way of thinking in the fall, but he believes getting the players used to winning now will translate into victories in the spring.

“I like to win. I think winning breeds confidence,” Franco said. “You don’t come out here just to play. You come out here to be better than the other team, and I think this fall, we have a lot of inexperienced players, so I think this fall, it’s going to be a very big job of mind to get different guys in at different positions. We like to put a competitive team out there and give everybody a chance to play, but at the same time, that’s why we practice and practices can determine a lot and can determine our starting lineup.”

Alonzo shares Franco’s sentiments.

“You always want to be aggressive and win as many games as you can,” he said.

That tenacity helped lead Monarch to its first district title last year. Some people may think it was easy for Monarch to earn that title, but returning player Nick Ritornato thinks otherwise.

“I know the talk out there is we have an easy district, but I don’t see it that way. Any team you face can beat when you don’t play well,” he said. “We know BA [Boyd Anderson] can do that, we know [Coconut] Creek can do that and we certainly know Northeast can do that, so we just have to come out and play our best every game.”

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