Baseball: Hot streak, historic milestone lead to HNT Player of the Year for this junior

Even great players scuffle at times, that’s just baseball, and Julius Rosado noted he felt some pressure on the road to 100 career hits this spring.

The South River junior had to “just force myself to get that hit” in early May.

Then, poof – it’s like a heavy weight was lifted off his bat once reaching the milestone.

“After that, all the pressure was gone,” he recalled. “Then I was like, I’m just going to go hit and just have fun.”

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He entered a zone, one of those baseball nirvana mindsets where he could do no wrong, like he was smacking a Whiffle ball in the backyard. Rosado began a streak of reaching base 25 straight times. Not games – at-bats.

Now, that’s fun.

“It really felt like the ball was massive,” Rosado said of that stretch. “It looked like a beach ball. I felt like I was able to wait as long as I could to hit the ball and it just felt really, like locked in. I was just really locked in.”

It ended with an out to the warning track, and he simply picked right back up. He reached base by a hit or walk in 40 of his last 43 plate appearances over the final 10 games.

Rosado is the Home News Tribune Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Player of the Year for his terrific season.

Check out his stats that don’t seem real: Rosado hit .594 (38-for-64) with 14 home runs, 34 RBIs, 44 runs, seven doubles and 20 stolen bases. He walked 32 times – 12 intentional – and had a .732 OBP, a 1.421 slugging percentage and an OPS of 2.153.

Oh, he also pitched, which sometimes gets lost in his offensive shows.

The righthander went 5-2 with 80 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings and a 1.56 ERA boosted by a mean slider with movement.

Along the way, Rosado set career modern-day program records in home runs (25), doubles (28) and strikeouts as a pitcher (243).

Another accolade, that sums up his team’s real worth, is he’s the first junior captain in Mike Lepore Jr.’s 27 years as a coach.

“As talented a baseball player Julius is, his leadership and character on and off the field sometimes goes unnoticed,” Lepore Jr. said. “His relentless work ethic carried over to our team and made everyone around him better. He is one of the most respected and well-liked players in the county by not only his peers, but also the GMC coaches. I am sure he appreciates all the individual accolades he’s received but when he steps on the field his number one priority is how he can help us win baseball games.”

The 6-foot, 200-pounder just has a presence about him. Take when he launched a no-doubt shot over right field in mid-April.

Fans know the ping and ring, that noise when a well-hit baseball bounces off the aluminum bat. Then, there was that clank off Rosado’s connection, a full symphony-like sound when he got ahold of a poor ball with a full-flush swing.

The spectators, as well as another team waiting for their game, gave a collective, ‘ooh.’ Rosado did his trademark stomp on home plate with his right leg and raised his helmet up as he got high-fives from his teammates.

For Rosado, a Rutgers commit, it was all about having fun and playing with his buddies that he grew up with. He’s embraced that leadership role on the mostly young squad, from putting underclassmen at ease by saying hi in the hallways to giving a well-placed tip.

“It’s really cool I’m in the record book at South River,” Rosado said. “I love representing this town, but the main goal is to win and bring my team just far as I can. So that’s the most important thing in my opinion, but it’s obviously very amazing. I’m thankful that I’m able to do that – be a part of the history book at South River. But I would put my team’s priority first when it comes to that.”

Rosado got the love of baseball from his father Ronald, who played in Perth Amboy, adding “He’s the reason I’m the person I am right now. He loved it since he was a little kid and then he put it on me and then I fell in love with it as he did.”

He’ll do something baseball-related nearly every day even if it’s swinging in the garage or tossing a tennis ball against a brick wall to work on fielding.

Beyond the mechanics, Rosado credited hitting the weight room for his ascent. He took it seriously after his freshman season and went from a scrawny 165 pounds to a muscular 190 as a sophomore.

He’ll pop in heavy metal, or rap, or whatever and just go, noting it’s a stress release and escape from the stress of baseball, and added, “I love it. It makes me clear my head. The music, the sound of the iron hitting each other. Just everything about it.”

He also eats healthy – his favorite: mom’s salmon with white rice dish.

Everything connects and Rosado knows that no matter how many highlights he provides, there’s always the next at-bat.

That’s what makes it so fun.

“I just like the challenge,” he said. “Me personally, I love the challenge of it because it’s the hardest sport there is. The challenge is what drives me. I want that challenge to be the best at one of the hardest things to do in sports. I also like the relationships and the bonds that I get from playing this sport.”

So, is Rosado going to take some time off from baseball this summer? Not quite.

“I have a (club) game today, actually,” Rosado said last week.

And you wouldn’t want it any other way? “Nope,” he said. “Never.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: HNT Player of the Year is South River's Julius Rosado