Pierson Baseball Starts Season Strong With Victories Over Shelter Island

Shelter Island junior pitcher Ben Waife had turned both eyes and ears coming into this spring as a legitimate arm — Pierson head coach Jonathan Schwartz mentioned in the week leading up to the season that Waife could end up being a thorn in his team’s side this season.

The season opener — in what was to be the first of a three-game series — for both Pierson and Shelter Island was postponed from March 29 to this Saturday, April 9, due to record-low frigid temperatures. The two teams met the following day, March 30, in what became the actual season opener, in some still very cold conditions, and there was Waife, the lefthanded, hard-throwing hurler waiting on the mound for the Whalers. Schwartz said Waife was as advertised for the most part, but, by the time both starters came out of the game after four innings — senior Reed Kelsey started on the hill for Pierson — the Whalers led, 2-1, and went on to win, 9-2.

“We made good contact off him, had some chances, some decent swings. He froze a couple of us at the plate. He was good, but, nothing we haven’t seen before, really,” he explained. “Being that it was the first game of the season and Waife being a lefty, that did cause us some issues. He mixed up his pitches pretty well. I think the weather made it difficult to have total control of the baseball — it was a little challenging for Reed as well — but we did a good job once we got past Waife and we were able to score a couple of runs.”

Schwartz liked what he saw from his own pitcher in Kelsey, who has shown in the past that he throws strikes and pitches to contact, which is exactly what he did last week. He only allowed the one run before giving way to Mason Wheeler, who pitched the final two innings and Schwartz said he liked what he saw from him as well. Kelsey also went 3 for 4 at the plate, which included a triple, and drove in a run and scored twice. Sophomore Dom Mancino hit a pair of doubles and scored twice as well.

Shelter Island’s lack of pitching depth behind Waife showed in game two of the series at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor on Friday. Pierson nearly batted around twice and scored 13 runs in the first inning to set the tone of the game early on. Pierson’s top starting pitcher, senior Dan Labrozzi, made his first start of the spring and looked strong. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, and it was the only one he gave up in what was a five-inning game cut short due to the run rule — 15 runs after five innings, if both coaches agree to call the game.

Labrozzi struck out 10 of the 13 batters he faced all game, and at one point it looked as if a perfect game was possible, until Waife singled up the middle in the fourth inning. Schwartz said, if it’s at all possible, Labrozzi looked stronger on Friday than at any point he did last season as the team’s ace. That’s additionally impressive given that Labrozzi — along with three other teammates — had a late start to the season due to the prolonged basketball season that ended at the state tournament.

“I told Dan before the game, it was his first start, I wasn’t leaving him in, unless he had a perfect game going,” Schwartz said, to limit the senior’s arm use. “It still looked easy for him, but anything other than a perfect game I wasn’t leaving him in. I didn’t care if it was a no hitter, I would have been fine with a combined no hitter. Dan threw two innings against Southampton, this one we extended him a little bit more, maybe 50-60 pitches, which wasn’t much at all. Hopefully we keep extending him. As long as he’s feeling good and recovering well, we plan on starting him the last start of a series, and part of that is to give him time to rest but also so he’s available to play different positions the first two games of a series.”

Charles Shaefer, who is making his way back to being fully healthy after suffering an offseason broken ankle, made his way into the starting lineup last week and Schwartz said that was a good sign. Schaefer drove in three runs in the win over Shelter Island on Friday.

Pierson will play Greenport in a three-game series this week that began on Tuesday and will finish this Friday, April 8, at Mashashimuet Park at 4:30 p.m. before it takes on Southold next week.