The Immaculata High School varsity baseball team was unsatisfied with taking one of New Jersey’s top squads down to the wire, but it was another sign of why this could end up being one of the best seasons in program history.
The Spartans went toe to toe for nine innings with Bridgewater-Raritan, then-ranked No. 3 by NJ.com, before falling in 10 innings, 7-1, on May 7 at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
It was a minor setback in what has been a stellar spring. Immaculata started the season with a 9-0 record for the first time since 2012, and as of May 13 it was 13-4 with all its lofty postseason goals still in sight.
“The mission of this team all season has kind of just been take it pitch by pitch,” senior catcher Danny Ferguson said. “We know we’re good enough, we’ve shown we’re good enough. We started 9-0, so when we went down, we had to try and figure it back out, and I think we did. We played well today until the wheels fell off, so it does go to show that we can hang with any team in the state if we really play together and just keep energy the whole game.”
This year, Immaculata is loaded with talented upperclassmen including three college baseball commits: Ferguson (Roanoke), senior infielder Josh Thompson (Siena) and senior infielder Troy Rabosky (Moravian).
“I’m really happy with how the team is. For years we’ve had a young team, or the ‘this team shouldn’t be here’ team, but I think now we have the ‘these guys are here to battle,’” Thompson said. “We’re here because we’re supposed to be here, not because we got a chance to be here.”
That might have been the feeling to some outsiders two years ago when Immaculata made a surprising late-season run to the NJSIAA Non-Public B state championship game. But these Spartans have been a force from the get-go thanks to their depth and varsity experience.
Immaculata has a shot to surpass the 2018 squad’s 21 wins, which are the most since Kevin Cust became the head coach in 2013. Heading into late May, the program was also seeking its first Somerset County title since 2019 and first state title since 2010.
“We only had one senior last year, so we had a lot of development on our team,” Ferguson said. “Starting with the first scrimmage we kind of knew that we had something special if we play together.”
As of May 13, Thompson was leading the team in hitting with a .449 batting average. Six others were batting at least .300 including Rabosky (.447), Colin Kassai (.415), Jayson Labrador (.387), Jayden Capindica (.353), Owen Schilling (.314) and Ferguson (.304).
Rabosky had team highs in home runs (three) and RBI (22), while Ferguson was leading the team in walks (14) and second in stolen bases (eight) behind Capindica’s 11. Thompson had 22 hits, 10 walks and two hit-by-pitches for a team-best .557 on-base percentage.
“I feel like I get in the box and I’m just ready to attack instead of forcing myself to try to get a result,” said Thompson, noting that his improved hitting as a senior has come from his mental approach rather than adjusting his physical mechanics. “It’s just knowing that I can get the result and just let it happen.”
On the mound, Immaculata’s team ERA of 3.78 was nearly a full run better than last season as of May 13. Nick Bozzo was leading the pitching staff with 28.2 innings and a 2.69 ERA, while Sean Henry had been a dominant late-inning reliever with 21 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Thompson, in addition to playing all around the infield, has improved his pitching this year with 13 strikeouts and only one earned run allowed in 17 innings. Ferguson said from catching him that he notices more bite on Thompson’s off-speed stuff and more ride on his fastball, which stems from offseason training.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that get a little banged up, but everybody is really staying resilient and putting their best foot forward,” Ferguson said. “We’ve done a great job pitching this year I think.”
Thompson noted that the players gain invaluable experience learning from Cust, who also played at Immaculata and in the minor leagues with the Atlanta Braves in 2001.
“In the big picture, he’s doing everything to get us better. It’s not just making us better players, but it’s molding us into better men,” Thompson said. “From not even just little things we do at practice – from team gatherings and our team hangouts and our bible study, all the stuff we do, it’s built through all the stuff he’s taught us. There’re more than just baseball skills that he’s taught us.”
Cust is also the director of Baseball Operations at Diamond Nation, so the Immaculata kids have access to the facility and train there in the winter as well as at Branchburg Sports Complex, which is one reason why they mesh so well together as a team.
Some of the players also suit up in the offseason with the Diamond Jacks, an 18U program that has fostered future major leaguers such as Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe.
To Thompson, what makes the high school team so special is its family environment. His father, who also played at Immaculata, is an assistant coach and leads the team’s pregame prayers.
“It’s awesome. Everybody is so connected,” Thompson said. “It’s great to have all these resources in the dugout, at the school, at the facility here where guys have gone through Immaculata. They know the faith. It’s all one big family.”