Another grueling winter has passed, and as the weather warms, America’s greatest pastime rides on its coattails right here at NASH. Last season’s WPIAL champs, the Tiger baseball team has not lost its focus throughout the offseason. But today in the home opener versus longtime rivals Pine-Richland, a new season commences, where the glories of the previous season are left behind in favor of new aspirations.
“A big difference this year is the position players,” shortstop Augie Maslo said. “Last year, we had six to seven seniors playing every game, so we’re going to need to adjust.”
The WPIAL section 6A will look a little different this year. Pine-Richland, Baldwin, and Allderdice have all moved down to section 5A, while North Hills and Woodland Hills are moving up. The section now sits at ten teams. This change removes a powerful foe in the section for the Tigers, who no longer have to fight Pine-Richland in the season standings and playoffs, although the rivalry will still be plenty present when they meet on the diamond.
“I don’t mind Pine moving down out of our section because it opens up 6A more for us,” pitcher Nate Persinger said.
Expectations are high for this group, as they are returning ten seniors, many of whom have future collegiate talent. Augie Maslo, Nico Varlotta, Mason Smith, Jackson Walsh, Miles Pealer, Nate Persinger, Sean O’Donnell, and Ben Wilcox are all currently committed to continuing their baseball careers after high school.
They’re ranked as the team to beat this year in a WPIAL 6A preseason rankings by triblive.com. The potential for this team is very rich as they’ll be setting their sights on back-to-back WPIAL championships, and if they capture that prize again this spring, it will be the tenth in school history.
The schedule will consist of 21 games, spanning from today to May 8th, and then it’s on to the WPIAL playoff games. Sectional play will be formatted as three-game series against Butler, Central Catholic, Seneca Valley, and North Hills. Playing well in these series will be paramount to a successful season.
“The best competition for us in the WPIAL this year is definitely Butler, considering we lean on pitching to win us games, and they have two pitchers who can throw in the low 90’s,” Walsh said. “They are our biggest challenge this year.”
The Tigers will be without star senior Nico Varlotta during the first game of the season because of a suspension that carries over from last season. Varlotta will be an important missing component for North Allegheny against Pine-Richland, but the team’s confidence has not been shaken.
“Pitching is our strength, and we usually do have good pitching every year,” Persinger said. “I think we can be really great.”
The Tigers will face the Rams in the season opener this afternoon at 4:00 at NASH. Winning this game would be a sweet dose of schadenfreude for the black and gold faithful and an incredible start to the spring.
