Norman Thomas’ players celebrate scoring a run. (Denis Gostev)
At first glance, Norman Thomas has the look of a JV baseball team compared to its recent product. The Tigers are small and fresh-faced, loaded with underclassmen and inexperienced juniors. It showed early in the season when the Manhattan school dropped two of its first four league contests – traditionally a season’s worth for Nerva Jean Pierre’s club.
What did Jean Pierre due to remedy the situation? Add two freshman to the starting lineup, of course.
“We were gonna go young, might as well go all the way young,” he said with that unmistakable cackle of his.
Jean Pierre, who announced this would be his final year, has plenty of reasons to smile these days. The Tigers, who typically start two freshmen, a sophomore and six juniors, are red-hot, winners of six straight in Manhattan A East after Monday’s thrilling 4-2 win over Manhattan A West-leading Beacon in Central Park. As a result, they are now tied for second place with Manhattan Center behind George Washington.
“We did a lot of growing up during the George Washington [Holiday] Tournament,” Jean Pierre said of his team’s third-place finish in the Easter tournament. “We played, we battled, we were tested, we came back, we stayed together.”
The two freshmen played significant roles against the Blue Demons. Left fielder Arturo Cotto made a huge grab of a line drive in the seventh inning that seemed ticketed for the gap and drove in a run and scored once. Second baseman Keven Rodriguez was a nuisance atop the lineup, walking twice and stealing four bases.
Junior ace Jeffrey Ledesma picked up his second win, going six innings, striking out eight – six in his final three innings of work – and allowing just one hit and no earned runs. Paul Garcia, another junior, drove in the go-ahead runs in the fifth with a booming double to left field. Garcia, in fact, was dropped in the order, all the way to sixth from second, after his recent struggles. But with two on in the fifth, he jumped all over an Orlando Adorno fastball, rocketing it off the backstop of the adjacent field.
“I was like let me do what I always do and hopefully I get back to my [usual] spot,” he said. “I really don’t care. I’m here to help the team out.”
Junior Juan Arias picked up the difficult save by pitching around two walks in the seventh and getting Dylan Long to line out to Garcia in right with the bases loaded.
It was a frustrating cap to another frustrating loss for Beacon (6-2, Manhattan A West), its second straight after six wins in a row to start the year. The absence of starting shortstop Samuel Fox, suspended after throwing his bat against George Washington was glaring. But Beacon coach Tom Covotsos was particularly disappointed in the middle of the order, which has struggled of late and he thought was looking to yank too many pitches against Ledesma.
“The middle of the lineup is trying to jack the ball out instead of hit the pitch where it is,” he said. “It’s the reason they are popping up. They are going to the wrong field with the ball. That’s not what we do.”
Norman Thomas (7-2, Manhattan A East)celebrated the win like it was a playoff victory, mobbing one another on the infield after Garcia’s grab. It was a significant win, the Tigers’ biggest of the season, Jean Pierre said. It came over a division leader which recently pushed George Washington to the limit and showed the young Tigers its capabilities.
“It shows we can play with the best in Manhattan,” Ledesma said. “It’s important because we lost the first and fourth games of the season. I know a lot of people thought we were down and we weren’t gonna be good season.”
Quite the contrary, actually, for Norman Thomas which has contined to win with freshmen, inexperience and all.
