CBA’s Luca Dalatri Named Gatorade NJ Player of the Year

Christian Brothers Academy junior ace Luca Dalatri, a North Carolina recruit, has received the prestigious honor of being named the Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year, the company announced in a release on Thursday.

Dalatri, who is a combined 19-0 over the past two seasons and 8-0 this spring, had an 0.89 ERA through his first seven games and has 100-plus strikeouts in 62 innings this season. He also is having a strong year at the plate, batting just under .400 with six home runs with more than 30 RBI.

Dalatri, who was the Shore Sports Network Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore, already has a CBA-record 24 wins, which is 10 shy of the Shore Conference career record of 34 set by former Toms River East star Casey Gaynor, who is now the pitching coach at Rutgers. Dalatri and CBA are in the midst of potentially the best season ever at one of the state's top programs, as they have already won the Class A North and Monmouth County Tournament titles, and they have advanced to the Shore Conference Tournament final and will play in the Non-Public South A semifinals against Immaculata on Friday.

He becomes the first player from a Monmouth County school to ever win the award. The last Gatorade NJ Player of the Year from the Shore Conference was slugging Jackson Memorial third baseman Bryan Soloman in 2010. Soloman went on to a great career at Eastern Kentucky University.

In 2002, Toms River East pitcher Ryan Doherty won the award before going on to star as a closer at Notre Dame. The 7-footer is now a professional beach volleyball star and Olympic hopeful. The other winners from the Shore since the award's inception in 1986 include former Toms River South star Charlie Frazier (1999), now an assistant for the Indians after playing in the Florida Marlins' system, and Toms River North star J.M. Gold (1998), the current Jackson Memorial pitching coach who was a first-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Dalatri's selection gives the Shore Conference the reigning Gatorade NJ Players of the Year in baseball and girls basketball (Manasquan's Marina Mabrey).

Other past winners of the Gatorade award include American League MVP Mike Trout of the Anaheim Angels and Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello as well as current Old Bridge ace Zach Attianese, who is Dalatri's future teammate at North Carolina unless one or both of them get selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft next year.