Photo courtesy of Ryan Lanigan (@R_Lanigan/HockomockSports.com)
By Matt Feld (@Mattyfeld612)
This past Saturday, the MIAA Baseball season officially came to a close with three state champions crowned out at Holy Cross.
Now, following a spring of eye-opening individual performances, Suite Sports is excited to announce Franklin right-hander Jake Noviello
as its Most Valuable Player for the 2018 season. Noviello was chosen from a
deep pool of candidates with the help of our panel of writers, correspondents,
and editors, as well as numerous opposing coaches and players.
He joins 2017
winner Mike Vasil as the two players to take home the award.
The Franklin ace was instrumental
in leading the Panthers to an improbable Super Eight title. Over the course of
four postseason appearances, Noviello went 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA as well as a
save.
For the season the six-foot five-inch, 215-pound right-hander made 12
appearances including 10 starts. He went 7-2 with a 1.81 ERA, four complete
games, 66 strikeouts in 65.2 innings, while allowing 51 hits and compiling a
save in the Super Eight Quarter Finals versus St. John’s Prep.
Every time Franklin’s Super Eight
aspirations or postseason fate seemed to be on the line, Noviello took his game
to another level. In Franklin’s first regular season showdown with Hockomock
League rival Mansfield, Noviello carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning as
part of a 2-0 win.
Then in the Panthers final
regular season game of the year versus North Attleboro, with a Super Eight
slot almost certainly hanging in the balance, Noviello turned in his best
performance of the season. Against the eventual Division 2 State Champions, he
fired eight innings of one run ball where he allowed just three hits and struck
out a dozen.
“The moment was never too big for
Jake,” said Franklin coach Zach Brown. “He showed the younger guys the way off
the field and then carried that mindset onto the field. He was always the one carrying
the pitchers bag. He was always the last one off the bus to make sure we had
gotten everything or trying to get another lift in in the weight room. Then on
the field, he is just a gamer. When it’s go-time for Jake, he takes his game to
another level.”
Noviello showed that ability to
elevate his play in the Super Eight Final versus Central Catholic. Coming into
a tie game in the bottom of the eighth inning, and with a pair in scoring
position and nobody out, Noviello ratcheted up the velocity and struck out
three of the four hitters he faced to escape unscathed.
One frame later, after Franklin
had taken a one run lead, Noviello put the finishing touches on with a pair of
strikeouts to commence the championship celebration.
“You cannot replace someone like
Jake Noviello,” said Brown. “All game and tournament long we always said we
were going to go with our best if we felt we had a chance to win regardless of
other circumstances. Jake was always that – our best.”
Noviello will continue his
playing career at Fairfield in the fall.
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