Quality arms lead North Shore

The start to the North Shore baseball season was grand. Pun intended. 

In the season opener on March 27, junior Gavin Butler smacked a walk-off grand-slam home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to propel North Shore to a stunning 13-9 win over perennial power Plainedge. 

However, that clutch blast was not a harbinger. North Shore dropped its next five games, failing to hit in big spots during the program’s longest losing streak in two decades.

The Vikings have staged a mini-revival, having won two out of three in a series with Island Trees. Its record stood at 3-6 heading into a three-game set against Mineola this week.

No one can predict what the veteran Vikings have in store the rest of the way. It’s a club with nine seniors and a robust pitching staff and it should add up to future success.

“We’ve dealt with adversity before,’’ said coach Scott Lineman, in his 11th season. “Last year was a tough year for us. We were a young team. This year we’re more experienced. Losing five straight, we were able to come back against a good Island Trees team, score some runs, play better defense.”

North Shore has recently fallen on hard times as the maroon suffered through a subpar spring in 2022, going 7-11, missing the playoffs for the first time in Lineman’s reign.

Since Covid-19, North Shore’s bats haven’t boomed. But the pitching North Shore possesses is splendid.

The staff consists of All-Conference senior Matt Nochowitz, junior Garret Gates and the senior Butler – each equally effective in their own way. 

“One bright spot coming into the season is our entire pitching staff,’’ Lineman said. “They’re all starters and aces. Our three pitchers are what makes us go. They’re striking out batters. They’re the guys who keep us in the games.’’

Nochowitz may have the slight edge as starter if it came down to a one-game playoff. Already committed to play baseball at Cortland State, Nochowitz possesses a fastball in the mid-80’s and a wicked changeup that led to 36 strikeouts last season.

Gates is the lefty of the rotation with a staff’s best breaking ball. Butler, a reliever in 2022, might be the most versatile – owning three tough pitches in his fastball, curve and changeup. 

The pitchers just didn’t have enough run support during the five-game losing streak. The team is hitting a decent .275 but has been out of luck with runners in scoring position.

The lack of key hitting is not a shock since they lost their three best bats to graduation in Gavin Goss, who plays at Dean College, Julian Sferrazza and Nick Caprarella 

“We weren’t getting the timely hits,’’ Lineman said. “We had guys in scoring position. Some were unlucky bounces of the ball or hit right at the other team. We weren’t able to knock the guys on base in.’’

The leader of the infield is junior catcher Matt Ryan. He’s hitting .285 but stroking the ball better than that. “He’s hitting the ball hard at guys,’’ Lineman said. “But he’s excellent defensively. We haven’t had too many guys running on us.’’

North Shore’s top two seniors are shortstop Jayden Rosario and Sean Maldonado. Rosario leads the team with a .375 batting average and 7 runs scored. Maldonado is hitting over .300. and sophomore third baseman Ryan Lau is batting .340.

Lineman still is hopeful the Vikings’ deep pitching will get them back into playoff contention “We get guys on base but have to execute better in bunt situations and two-strike hitting,’’ he said.