PINETOWN — Northside’s preseason got underway with a home scrimmage against Currituck County on Thursday. The Panthers are retooling a bit, even though they only graduated four seniors from last year’s team that went 7-16.

The significant portion of the team is made up of sophomores, some of which are being brought up from a successful junior varsity squad that only lost one game last year. This time of the year helps them get in quality work at the varsity level before being thrown into the fire.

Here’s what coach Keith Boyd had to say about the season, which kicks off Tuesday against South Creek.

 

On what’s he’s learned about the team in the preseason:

“Being as young as we are, our pitching is great. Zach Woolard started off (against Currituck County) as a senior and got us going. He had a good outing. We had about five sophomores follow him and all of them had a great outing.

“Our defense was fairly solid. We had a hiccup once or twice. For the most part, pitching, catching and base running were really good. We’ve just got to get better with our bats. Too many strikeouts. … Our defense, hopefully, is going to be ahead of the offense anyways.”

 

On players making the jump to varsity:

“There’s a learning curve. It’s going to be a little easier on the JV level, probably. They’re going to see better pitching. Them being young, they’re going to see older pitching more so. They’re going to have some growing pains, but we’re hoping they’ll come along and help move our offense.”

 

On expectations for the season:

“We’ll hold off on predictions right now, but I think that they can play a little bit. But, one night we’re going to go out and look like a bunch of seniors playing out there and one night we’re going to look like a bunch of freshman, probably. We’re just hoping to get more consistent as the season goes on.”

 

On the sophomore class specifically:

“We’ve got five up and we’ve got three or four down (on JV) that we really want to pull up if we have enough for a JV team. They’re a solid sophomore group. I don’t have an outstanding one who is going to shine above them all. That’s what made them so outstanding last year as a JV team as freshmen. They’re just a good group. They all play their own roles.”

 

On the team’s leadership:

“(The juniors and seniors) are how we’re going to win. Their leadership, they’ve been there before. I have a pitcher (Chase Sauls) who didn’t pitch tonight because he’s recovering from a groin injury. Those two guys, the seniors on the mound … Then the juniors who played up as sophomores last year, they’ve got some experience. We’re going to lean on those guys. Then the sophomores will fill in there and do their thing.”