FRUITPORT – Early in the season, Ryan Bosch, Fruitport’s 6-foot-8 ace pitcher, developed a little bit of soreness in his throwing arm.

It was nothing structural or serious, but it required Bosch to take a break from the mound for a little while, just for the sake of caution.

For a lot of high school baseball teams, that type of setback would have been rough, because most squads have limited pitching depth on their rosters.

But that’s not a problem at Fruitport.

The Trojans have the rare luxury of having five quality pitchers on their team, and any one of them would be near the top of the rotation at most other schools.

With five guys who consistently throw strikes and get batters out, there is no need for Fruitport Coach Nick Reed to use any one pitcher too much and risk injury or ineffectiveness.

“This is a luxury we haven’t had in quite some time,” Reed said. “It’s a very good luxury to have, because we’ve been able to protect their arms. That’s really the key, not overusing them and stressing them out.”

Rare pitching depth for a prep team

The top guy on the mound is Bosch, who entered this week with a 1-2 record with a shiny 2.90 earned run average and 33 strikeouts in 18 innings, which is almost two per inning.

He is generally acknowledged as one of the top prep pitchers in West Michigan and is already committed to play college baseball for Wake Forest University.

Then comes Trevor Rusnak, who started the week 2-3 with a very nice 3.30 ERA. That ERA just happens to be the highest of the five – which says a lot about the quality of the pitching staff.

“He’s very efficient,” Reed said about Rusnak. “He has transformed himself into less of a power pitcher and more of a get-outs pitcher.”

Hudson Hazekamp, only a freshman, has been a huge plus, entering this week with a 3-1 record and a 1.72 ERA.

“We didn’t know what we would have with him,” Reed said. “But his first time out, against Sparta, he did really well. He’s not a flame-thrower, but he throws strikes, gets ahead in the count and uses his defense.”

Christian Kennedy, who starts and comes into games in relief, started the week 2-1 with a 2.07 ERA.

“He spot-starts for us and is the main arm in our bullpen,” Reed said. “He is the lone senior and just a strike thrower.”

Finally there is Avery Lambers, who is also Fruitport’s standout starting catcher in most games. He started the week 4-0 with a 2.85 ERA.

He’s the other big strikeout guy on the staff, with 39 Ks in 27 innings.

“We try to use Avery on the mound in single games (as opposed to doubleheaders) because he is our No. 1 catcher,” Reed said. “He will usually pitch non-conference games or pitch Thursday single conference games, to give Ryan a rest.”

The best part about the pitching staff is that it’s very young and will remain largely intact for several more seasons.

Kennedy will be graduating soon, but Bosch is only a junior, Rusnak and Lambers are sophomores and Hazekamp is a freshman.

“We have pitchers who have gone through the grind of a season and know how to prepare for the next season, and that creates the ability for them to challenge each other to be at their best and try to outdo the previous outing,” Reed said. “It’s so exciting and it relaxes me a bit to know we will have quality arms to toe the rubber.”

Bats finally catching up to the pitching

Anyone looking at Fruitport’s current record – 13-11 overall and 8-9 in the tough O-K Blue conference – might say, well, the pitching must not be that great because there have been quite a few losses.

The truth is that the pitching has been great all season. The problem, until recently, was the offense, which had a tendency to sputter with runners in scoring position.

The Trojans have lost seven games when they scored two or fewer runs, which is not a lot of support for a pitcher.

In a stretch of games between April 16 and 23, Fruitport lost four games by scores of 3-2, 2-0, 5-2 and 3-2.

“We struggled early on with the hitting,” Reed said. “Not overall hitting but hitting together. If we could have hit better with runners in scoring position, we might be like a 17-5 team right now.”

Lately, however, the bats have come alive and the Trojans have won 8 of their last 13 games.

The pitching has remained a constant. Of the eight recent wins, the Trojans have one shutout and have given up a one run in one game, three runs in one game and four runs in three games.

Two extra factors have really helped the pitching staff. One is the improvement of the Trojan defense, which has allowed the pitchers to relax a bit and not be afraid to let opponents make contact.

Only two of the five pitchers are big strikeout guys. The other three pitch more to contact and the fielders behind them often take care of the rest.

Another big plus has been the development of multi-sport standout Ricky Wiggins as a quality backup catcher. He worked hard to improve his skills behind the plate for this season, which allows the Trojans to use Lambers on the mound a lot more.

“Ricky was a catcher last year, but he really wasn’t able to put in the work he needed to be an effective catcher at the varsity level,” Reed said. “He plays football and hockey, too, so he was spreading it kind of thin. But this year he made it a goal to improve himself for the betterment of the team, which has been huge for us.”