Preseason Picks

Not to mention future Salve Regina Seahawk, the great Trambino, Alex Trammel.

Pembroke Academy has a second year coach who really seems to be doing a good job over there, I understand he is now the American Legion coach for Concord now as well. I am curious to see how they progress in his second year. I know that their feeder system has been working really hard to get their kids additional games over the past 3 or 4 years.

Well I'm a little biased but I think Nashua North should be a top 4 team this year come tournament time. They have 3 top pitchers in McGowan, Turner and Morency. They have some good bats and team speed with the addition of several juniors from their successful JV program last year. As long as they don't shoot themselves in the foot they should do all right.

Nashua North is my pick for regular season title. You can never count out programs like Londonderry, Salem and Keene. I am curious to see how Trinity handles the loss of the best 1-2 punch in the state in 2009 of Cole/Clark.

Nashua South will be difficult as well, I do believe that North is stronger.

Does Salem have a pitcher or two to compliment Poore? After reading the article about him verbalizing with BC it sounds like he is coming into his Jr year stronger then ever, having picked up a couple of MPH on his fastball.

Keene and Londonderry just churn out good teams year in and year out. They can never be counted out.

Class L- North
Class I- Portsmouth

How many returing players does Portsmouth have? I know they have Mike and the kid going to Wakeforest.

Class L-Goffstown will be strong this year...good returning players in Beals, Couture, Bisceglia, Palmer, Naughton and French...their pitching should be strong and they should hit.

In Class I you have to make Portsmouth, with Jones and Montville the favorites until someone beats them. I know depth is important, but having two kids with their talent should carry that team a long way. Of the other I teams I saw last year, St. Thomas impressed me...I just don't know what they lost (or picked up) since last season.

I think Class I may go to Bedford, after readig the post about expanding the coaching staff and knowing the talent they have there. Should be fun to see them rising up against the usual suspects of Portsmouth and St. Thomas.

Class L will be tough as always, not sure I can make a pick too many strong teams. But I do like Nashua North. McGowen and Turner might be the best 1/2 pitching combo in the state then add McGowen and Breen as 3/4 in the lineup. Tough to beat.

The player who doesn't get mentioned much for North is Alex Morency who is a Senior. He throws above 85+ always, has a great curve ball and is the hardest thrower of the 3. For some reason last year as Junior he had an off year as a pitcher. Hitting wise he would be a 3 or 4 batter on any Team in the state and easily a .400+ hitter with power. He is already signed to go to Merrimack College as a Pitcher. Between the 3 of them pitching a majority of the games this spring in a 3 man rotation they shouldn't be giving up a whole lot of runs. It all comes down to defense which could be Norths downfall possibly. First game for North starts off with Londonderry in Nashua at Holman on 4/14.

I played for Portsmouth last year and it was a great team, but the team this year lost 5 or 6 seniors and they return 5 players from last year (Montville, Jones, Gonsalves, Taylor, Welch) I don't see them repeating however because the lineup won't be close to as good as it was last year. I think St. Thomas and Bedford have the best chance of the Class I teams. St Thomas' only downfall is that they don't have pitching. Bedford probably would have had a better chance to beat us if Nate Jones wasn't pitching against them.

Does anyone have any input on Lebanon? They went 13-3 last year and Woodward is back - any significant losses to graduation?

Eatman,

Who does Varsity have after McGowan, Morency and Turner? Who do you think will close? I was thinking Jake Mellin perhaps? I didn't get to slide over to the high school to watch any of the varsity scrimmage to see who else might be pitching other then the big three.

jball,

Lebanon graduated off 6 seniors, including Sean Drake (P) and Ethan Gage (C). Any Lebanon folks have any insight?

Eatman,

What about Joe Breen for North? I saw him play a little in the Showcase league. I remember him putting a pretty good charge in a ball one day. Also, is Louis Tarantino on Varsity? I know he's young (sophomore?), but I remember coaching against him in AAU a couple years ago. He was a stud. Great fastball. Very athletic at SS, a good bat, and great speed. The only time we could keep him off the bases was on a blazing one hoopper to 3B, and he was out by about a half step!

Tarantino in my opinion will be closing behind the 3 starters if needed. In the past the norm that I saw was to have the starters go 5 or 6 and end with Zapanis, Brown or someone with more gas, but that was a couple yrs back. Talking with my son he thinks the Starters will go the distance and only come out if needed.
As far a Tarintino though he is a hard thrower for his size and is a solid player, good outfielded with wheels and can hit. He'll get plenty of innings on the mound and he can flat out run, if he is not the fastest kid in the state he's in the top 10. There is a plenty of pitching in 2-3 Sophmores that are capable and 1 Freshman lefty Roberts. I'm sure some will be brought up for Varsity games as coach ussually has 2 or 3 JV players added.
Joe can flat out hit with a ton of power. I have never seen someone focused on being the best hitter around as Joe. Ever since he was in little league he would put twice the amount of hrs hitting as anyone else. Even now he goes every day since November to AB in Nashua with Ryan Gendron to hit. He's going somewhere to College I'm sure for his hitting and Power.

What grade is Tarantion? Genderon is also at Nashua North or is he at South? I agree on Breen very talented hitter, we are pretty excited to have him back in 2010 for Showcase. In terms of Showcase league that Western team should be pretty strong with the kids from the three Nashua schools and we are making a very strong effort to reach out to kids in Keene, New Ipswich, Rindge, Milford, Hollis, Brookline, Peterbourgh and all other Western Towns.

I'm pretty sure Tarentino is a sophomore. He beat up on us in AAU and Middle School. I'm pretty sure Ryan Gendron is from South. Hey, he played in your league ... you should know! (JK).

Based on the growth you've had in Showcase the last three years, as word gets out and you keep promoting it, the talent in that league is going to be unbelievable the next couple of years. You're going to have to add a couple more teams.

Tarintino is a Sophmore and played with the NH Grizzlies for 2 yrs I think and at his age level is probably be the best sophmore
in Nashua , some probably might disagree but he's up there in Talent level.
Ryan Gendron is at Nashua South with Brandon Cox, Jimmy Faso, Adam Gagnon, Billy McGloughlin and unfortunately Drew Dunn who transfered from North to South after the baseball Season last year. Ouch that hurt because he was a better than average catcher. South will be decent but not much pitching to speak of.

I second the notion that Tarantino is the best sophomore in Nashua. He is a true 5 tool player. The only thing holding him back is his size. If he were 6' 1" everyone would know who he was! Hopefully he at least hits 6' so he gets the looks he deserves at the next level. He does throw hard but I don't think his future is on the mound by any means. He is an outfielder in my opinion though he can handle the infield as well. But the jumps he gets on fly balls are fun to watch and he has a strong and accurate arm, you almost hope that they tag up or try to score from second on hits to him in the outfield so you can see him nail them at the plate! He is a good kid too which makes it easy to root for him.

Genny is indeed at South, they also have Brandon Cox plus I'm sure more talent. But I think North is the best of the three Nashua schools.

Is the dust settling with the pitching situation in Bedford? I saw the post saying that Bedford will have to face Nate Jones. Well Portsmouth will have to face Joey Maher.

That's not what the post of the FORMER Portsmouth player said. He said Bedford would have beat Portsmouth last year if they didn't face Nate Jones (who pitched well in the playoffs against Bedford).

I'm more of a skimmer which leads me to miss details.

Maher vs. Jones is what I want to see.

I'd really like to see a Jones vs. Nick Poore match up.

I'd like to see Poore pitch against North...doesn't matter who starts for North.

Possibility arrives April 19th in Salem I believe!

Watch out for Con Val, they will surprise people. Con Val has 2 amazing coaches. They love the kids and do whatever they can for them to succeed. Tempone will be a force on the mound. They also have Kyle Fisher who is one of the top hitter in Class I. Those two players are ideal to lead this team. There are players who will back them up like Cohen, Martin, and Sullivan. They have worked very hard during the off season as well. Tough bunch of players. Watch outttttt

To Con Val

Please dont make me look stupid and go 0-17

Just to clarify, I'm not saying Bedford would have beat Portsmouth I was just saying they might have had a better chance to beat Portsmouth if Nate Jones didn't pitch against them. I agree with mcaravella though Con Val does have a very good team as well I forgot about them. I think there will be good competition in Class I this year, but of course I hope Portsmouth has a great season and good luck to them!

Class L - Keene
Class I - St Thomas
Class M - Campbell

coach curt, somersworth is off to a good start, big win over Winnisquam. Any real standouts so far? I know Colbert threw well the other day but besides that, hows the Hilltoppers look going into week 2?

New England Pre-season write-ups. Not entirely accurate, but ok. Something else to read during the season.

Enjoy!!!



http://www.baseballjournal.com...010/04/08_bchigh.php

This is fun to go back and read now. Looks like the predictions of North for regular season title were accurate but we're still a long way from a State Champion.

Bedford didn't make the jump I thought they would, although they had a good season.

Mike you're pick of BG in the top 7 didn't come true. But I agreed with you explaination they had some skilled players.

If you look at Bedford's final regular season record of 10-6, I would have to agree it was a little short of expectation, but if you look a little closer you'll see that Bedford's record against teams that finished in the top 8 in Class I was 4-5 with a competitive loss to Portsmouth(#1) and a win/loss against St. Thomas(#2), Con-Val(#4), Souhegan(#5) and H/B(#8). Their other loss was to Goffstown(#2 Class L) and don't let the final score fool you - it was 3-1 after 6 innings. No other top 8 team had as many games against top 8 opponents. Time will tell if the tough schedule translates into tournament success.

Other top 8 teams vs. the top 8

1-Portsmouth (4-0) wins - 2 vs St. Thomas, Souhegan, Bedford
2-St. Thomas (3-3) wins - Pembroke, Bedford, H/B - losses - @ vs Portsmouth, Bedford
3-Lebanon (1-1) win - Pembroke - loss - Pembroke
4-Con-Val (3-3) wins - Souhegan, Bedford, H/B - losses - Souhegan, Bedford, H/B plus a win vs Keene(#7 Class L)
5-Souhegan (4-3) wins - Con-Val, Bedford, 2 vs H/B - losses - Portsmouth, Con-Val, Bedford
6-Pembroke (1-3) win - Lebanon - losses - Portsmouth, St. Thomas, Lebanon
8-H/B (2-5) wins - Con-Val, Bedford - losses - St. Thomas, Con-Val, 2 vs Souhegan, Bedford

Con-Val, Souhegan, Bedford & H/B all playing each other twice and all finishing in the top 8 is an accomplishment.