Monroe’s Lucas White – shown here throwing a no-hitter against South Brunswick in the 2023 GMC Tournament semifinals – is back for the Falcons this season. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
In the 2023 high school baseball season, Monroe made it to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals on a whale of a pitching performance by Lucas White.
The junior threw a no-hitter in the quarters to beat South Brunswick, but the journey ended in the semis with a 2-1 loss to North Brunswick.
While the Raiders – and eventual champion St. Joseph-Metuchen – lost oodles of talent, yet still have a good amount coming back, that’s not the case at Monroe this year.
The Falcons will be a veteran group in 2024, and nowhere is that more prevalent than on the pitching staff. Monroe returns the vast majority of its inningsf, starting with Harrison Lollin (1.42 ERA, 83 K, 16 BB in 59 1/3 IP), then trickling down to Lucas White and Zack Wallace, among others.
The thing is, White and Lollin can hit, too. Lollin hit .375 with one home run and a team-leading 15 RBIs on the year, while White hit .347 with 13 runs batted in. They had the best two batting averages on last year’s team.
The goal is to see that translate into wins instead of close losses like last season. To wit: in a 1-4 start that saw a loss to St. Joe’s, a loss to East Brunswick, and two losses to North Brunswick, three of those defeats were by a single run, 3-2 to the Falcons, 1-0 to the Raiders, and 6-5 to the Bears.
They also lost five other one-run games the rest of the year, including 2-1 in the GMC Tournament semis to North Brunswick, and again, 4-3 to the Raiders in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals in the NJSIAA state tournament.
If Monroe can flip that script, the Falcons could be in for a very special year.
Click below to hear Monroe head coach Sean Field talk about the Falcons’ 2024 season:
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