It’s a Start in the Right Direction

What does one have to do to crack the starting pitching rotation at Hart High? Post three complete-game victories?

Kevin Foderaro has done it. In three starts, going back to last season.

Show strikeout potential?

Foderaro fanned 10 in his debut as a starter. And 16 in his first 12 innings.

If that’s not enough, Foderaro even threw a no-hitter. The kid is on a roll.

Last Friday, Foderaro, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior right-hander, threw the first no-hitter of his career and the first by a Hart pitcher since Mike Henry in 1975 as the Indians opened Foothill League play with a 10-0 victory over Alhambra.

Foderaro struck out seven, walked one and improved his record to 2-0. He allowed only two baserunners while completing six perfect innings.

“I never thought I could do it,” Foderaro said Monday with a smile. “It’s something you always dream about, a no-hitter.”

About the only feat left for the happy-go-lucky hurler is to land a starting job.

Dream on.

Despite his impressive performances, Foderaro is still the No. 3 weapon on a team staffed with high-powered arms. Senior Andrew Lorraine, one of the region’s best left-handers, and junior Keith Halcovich, a side-arming right-hander, form one of the area’s best rotations.

“Pitching,” Hart Coach Bud Murray understated with a smile, “is a good thing to have.”

But where does Foderaro, heretofore a reliever, fit in? Surely a guy who can pitch seven no-hit innings is wasted in the bullpen.

“He’s learned to throw a slider and that’s made a big difference,” Murray said. “He’s gotten good enough to start. But one game does not make a year.”

Early season tournament and nonleague games have afforded Foderaro a chance to show his stuff as a starter. And he has capitalized.

Last season, he joined the varsity in midseason and tossed a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts in his only start. He finished the season 1-0 with two saves and a 2.92 earned-run average in 12 innings.

Three weeks ago, Foderaro pitched a three-hitter with four strikeouts in a 12-4 win over Lynwood.

But even Foderaro doubted that would spring him from the bullpen.

“I figured I’d be used mainly as a reliever,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to break into the rotation. It’s hard. (Lorraine and Halcovich are) really good pitchers.”

So is Foderaro--sometimes.

“Some days he has real good stuff,” Lorraine said. “It’s in his head--confidence and being smart.”

This season, Foderaro has 18 strikeouts and a 4.35 ERA in 19 1/3 innings. But he has hurt his chances because of his tendency to work slowly on the mound and display a lack of intensity.

Said Murray: “Every once in a while he goes into a daze.”

Fielders have sarcastically complained of boredom while Foderaro has procrastinated between pitches. Foderaro’s victory over Lynwood took nearly three hours.

Against Alhambra, Murray “jumped” Foderaro in the third inning for lollygagging.

“I was walking around the back of the mound after every pitch,” Foderaro said. “I would take so much time. I guess it turned into a habit.

“(Coach Murray) said it was bad because it slowed down my outfielders and players. They would get slow along with me and they wouldn’t be ready when the ball was hit to them.

“Now I get the ball and get right back up on the mound.”

Now Murray appears unsure of his rotation, perhaps because of the emergence of Foderaro, perhaps in an effort not to tip his hand to opponents. When pressed, he admits only that Lorraine, the staff’s lone left-hander, is guaranteed a start each week.

“I like to throw a lot of innings,” Foderaro said. “I feel I can start on this team.”

A three-man rotation? “It’s hard to tell nowadays,” Lorraine said. “Last year it was just me and Keith. Now we just kind of have to rotate it in advance.

“We haven’t figured it out yet.”