Prep baseball: Barron Collier junior pitches a no-hitter game

Coming into the season, Barron Collier High School’s baseball team figured to go through some growing pains after losing seven starters from last year’s Class 6A state semifinalist.

And sure enough, the Cougars struggled a bit early as the new sophomore starters got acclimated to expanded roles.

And with all the changes, one thing has been constant – the pitching of junior lefty Nick Denove. Denove, who combines with senior Nick Geller to give the Cougars a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, has been tremendous for Barron Collier. Denove is 4-3 with 1.61 earned run average, allowing just 23 hits over 39 innings with 16 walks and 53 strikeouts.

“The kid’s a bulldog out there on the mound,” Barron Collier coach Charlie Maurer said. “He’s an integral piece of the program. He’s the type of kid who doesn’t try to be a guy he’s not. He does what he does and believes in what he does.”

Denove isn’t the biggest presence on the mound, standing around 5-foot-10. His fastball doesn’t light up radar guns either, usually topping out at 81 miles per hour. But the slender lefty is a master at changing speeds and mixing pitches.

His mastery was on full display in a key district game against Lely on April 11. With both teams coming into the contest tied atop the Class 6A-District 12 standings, Denove fired a no-hitter in a 3-0 Cougars victory. In that game, he walked just two and struck out 11.

“Going into that game, the whole team knew we had to play a good game because Lely’s a pretty good team,” Denove said. “We knew we had to win if we wanted to get that top seed in the district, which makes it easier to advance in the playoffs. We all did what we had to do to win, and I pitched pretty well, too.”

Denove said he felt really good about his stuff early in the game, particularly his two-seam fastball, which was generating a lot of movement.

“My fastballs were running and my curveballs were breaking good, and they were having a tough time hitting me early,” he said. “But I never expected to complete a no-hitter.”

Denove said he thought about the no-hitter for the first time in the third inning, but once he got through the fifth unscathed, he started believing it was actually a possibility.

As he got to the seventh inning, needing just three outs to complete his gem, he tried not to overthink things too much. He said it helped that the game was still close, as he knew he couldn’t lose focus on the task at hand.

“I was trying to stay relaxed and not trying to overdo anything,” he said. “Just concentrating on throwing the way I’d been throwing. I think that’s probably what helped me get through that inning. I didn’t try to do too much, just relied on my defense to make the plays and just keep focusing on hitting my spots.”

Although the Cougars carried a sub .500 record of 11-12 into Tuesday’s season finale at Clearwater-Countryside, Barron Collier is confident about its chances in the playoffs.

“We like our team,” Denove said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, but those guys have experience now. And we feel like we’ve got the pitching to keep us in games.”

Denove, who also starts at first base and bats fifth in the order, said he’d love to keep playing at the next level. He said there’s much more room for future growth.

“I’ll be working this summer to get a little stronger, hopefully add some velocity heading into my senior season,” Denove said. “I like the way I’m pitching now, but there’s always room for improvement.”