Jared Carlucci delivers a pitch.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Columbia High School rising senior Jared Carlucci recently gave a verbal commitment to continue his baseball career at Division 1 Rutgers University on an athletic scholarship.
Carlucci, a right-handed pitcher, enjoyed a strong season this past spring for the CHS Cougars. In 39 innings pitched, he recorded four wins, allowing 29 hits and 34 walks and striking out 54 while posting a 2.85 earned run average. The Cougars this season moved up to the American Division of the Super Essex Conference. The American is the top division in the conference. Carlucci made the second team on the All–SEC–American.
Carlucci pitched 6 ⅔ hitless innings with 13 strikeouts and four walks in a 6-0 non-conference home win over a good Middlesex team on May 17. That was the Cougars’ eighth and final win of the season.
Carlucci, who also plays basketball for CHS, is elated about his decision to become a Rutgers Scarlet Knight.
“I was very excited to commit to Rutgers,” wrote Carlucci in an email to the News-Record. “Being a kid from New Jersey, I grew up watching Rutgers sports, and to be a part of their athletics program, means a lot to me. I absolutely loved the coaching staff there and think they have the tools and mindset to help me better myself as a player.
“Also, their recent success on the field, winning 75 games in the past two seasons, furthered my confidence in the program. Overall, with Rutgers being close to home, a successful program and having great coaches, it wasn’t too hard of a decision for me.”
As a sophomore in 2022, Carlucci helped the Cougars finish with a 17-12 overall record, including going 8-4 in the SEC–Liberty. He sported a 3.50 ERA, allowing 19 hits and 24 walks and striking out 19 in 22 innings pitched.
CHS head coach Ryan Muirhead was impressed by Carlucci’s sophomore season. This season, Carlucci proved to be clutch after the team was hit hard by graduation while competing in a tough division. Columbia finished 8-19 overall and had two wins in the division. As the No. 15 seed, the Cougars lost to American Division foe and No. 2 seed Bloomfield, 9-2, in the first round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 state tournament to end the season.
In 2022, Columbia, the No. 6 seed, reached the semifinals of the Section 1, Group 4 tournament, falling to No. 2 seed Passaic Tech, 6-0, to finish the 17-win campaign.
“Last year we had a really strong team,” wrote Muirhead in an email to the News-Record, “and we had two seniors at the top of the rotation who really operated as our top two arms, allowing Jared to ease into his varsity pitching career, and as you can see in his stats, he was still pretty solid even though he was only a sophomore. This year, however, with eight senior pitchers graduating from the 2022 team, we handed Jared the ball as the guy at the top of our rotation and asked him to pitch every big game that we had and he delivered. For anyone who has been following him, he has literally gotten better and better every time he’s gotten the ball this year, most recently wrapping up a very dominant summer season.”
Muirhead lauded Carlucci’s diligence and determination to become a solid pitching ace, serving as a role model for the other players on the team.
“Jared deserves a lot of credit for committing himself to his development,” Muirhead said. “I know he spent a lot of time working with his pitching coaches in the off-season and making sure his body was always ready to compete every time it was his turn to throw. He’s become someone that the other players look up to, especially our young pitchers, and it’s probably no surprise that he was selected as a team captain heading into the 2024 season.
“After watching what he did this spring and summer, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up as one of the top pitchers in the county and/or the state next spring.”
Rutgers went 33-23 overall and 14-10 in the Big Ten conference this past spring under head coach Steve Owens.
Photos Courtesy of Jared Carlucci
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