Pitching.

It will be the factor that will decide the fate of the Catasauqua baseball team this season.

With a relatively inexperienced club, the Rough Riders will hope their young arms will mature during the season as well as their overall experience.

Recently, the Roughies dropped a 12-6 decision at Palmerton, a game in which they trailed 5-4 after three innings.

Wesley Fotta started for the Roughies, and he was relieved by Christian Fye and Bryann Rivera. Fotta and Fye both went 2-for-3, and Hunter Reitz had two RBIs.

“We were in the game,” said Roughies’ head coach Steve Bradley. “We gave up eight unearned runs, and our pitching wasn’t good. We dropped two balls in the outfield, and I don’t know if it was due to the wind.

“They hit the ball well and made every play. We scored runs and they were all earned. We just have to tighten things up.”

A few days earlier, the Roughies opened the season with a 9-4 defeat to Saucon Valley. Brandon Jenny made the start for the Roughies. Reitz went 3-for-4 for the Roughies.

“We were right there at 6-3 in the sixth innings,” added Bradley. “We left some runners on, but we made some errors. We gave them some easy runs.

“Jenny did a nice job pitching for us, but we needed to take him out due to his 100 pitches. We did some nice things out there.”

Bradley lauded the play of Reitz, Fye, Anthonie Hunsicker and John Pushkar.

‘He’s a stud,” noted Bradley about Reitz. “He’s probably about the best freshman I have ever had. He does everything 100 percent, and plays a good center field.

“Fye is a hard-nosed kid, and Hunsicker had made some nice plays in the field. Pushkar has played a good second base. Derek Troxell and Cole Schiffer are our two senior leaders.

“Our young kids are tough, and they will be good,” stressed Bradley.