MALVERN, PA — It’s just what they do.
Four straight state championships. Eight of the last nine. 13 since 2006 when they won their first.
Upper Darby alum Freddy Hilliard has turned this program into an absolute juggernaut, as the Friars defeated Germantown Academy 2-0 at the Malvern Prep turf to end their season at 34-4.
As has been the theme all season, starting pitching led the way for the Friars. Malvern Prep had a plan that they executed perfectly as Lafayette recruit Jack Herbein threw the first 5.1 innings, allowing just a hit by pitch and a walk with five strikeouts. It was a bit surprising to see Herbein come out of the game at just 67 pitches, but it was clear that the plan was to have him go two times through the order, and in came Northwestern commit Collin Romanczuk to retire the last five hitters.
The game was deadlocked at 0-0 going into the bottom of the sixth, as Germantown Academy pitcher and Monmouth recruit Sean McGettigan threw extremely well. That is an absolutely brutal lineup to face, and he allowed just three hits and two earned runs over six innings.
Jalen Bowman led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, and Brady Abate did his job with a groundout to move him over.
Following walks to Jackson Melconian and Grady Forsberg, the bases were juiced with one out. Malvern continued to do the little things right as Cole Scarbinsky didn’t try and do too much, hitting a fly ball to center field to score Bowman as the game’s first run.
Malvern got an extra insurance run when Bryan Cogliano’s RBI double scored Melconian to make it 2-0 heading into the game’s final frame.
Following a line out to start the inning, Romanczuk hit Nathaniel Knapp with a pitch to put the tying run up to the plate. Romanczuk was able to bounce back from that, picking up a strikeout for the second out and a pop out to who else but Brady Abate, a starter on all four state title teams, to wrap it up.
There really isn’t much that hasn’t been said already about what this Malvern Prep program has become. There have been a lot of elite teams to come through Warren Ave the last two decades, but without having all the numbers in front of me, I’d argue this might be the most dominant pitching staff they have had.
To put it into perspective, Malvern ended the season with 19 consecutive games holding their opponents to three or fewer runs after losing 4-1 to Episcopal on April 14th. Only one of those games they even allowed three.
In their last 11 games, they only allowed more than one run ONE TIME, and it was a 9-2 win over SCH.
Jack Herbein and Collin Romanczuk get most of the love for starting the conference games, but they are so deep that they have plenty of talent to start those non-conference games. Kayden Wallace, Paul DiBona, Tyler Ryan, Cooper Romanczuk, the list goes on.
Collin Romanczuk will return as the ace of this staff in 2027 for the Friars, and there’s no doubt in my mind they will reload as usual as they look to win their fifth straight next spring.