Navs rain supreme in home opener

LYNN – Take two of the North Shore Navigators home opener against the Sanford Mariners on Thursday at Fraser Field looked like it was going to be a replay of the first try by the teams last weekend.Mother Nature was once again set to send everyone home from Fraser Field without seeing a pitch thrown as a major rainstorm ripped through the area a little before 6 p.m., forcing the tarp to be put on the field and a delay of nearly two hours.The biggest cheers of the night from the fans huddled under the roof of the stadium came when the Navs players and manager Jeff Waldron took the field and pulled the tarp off the field to let baseball finally be played.One man who was out there getting his hands dirty literally was Navs GM Pete Delani, the person ultimately in charge of whether Thursday’s home opener would go off. Before the rains came, the former Masco head baseball coach had his eye to the sky but still found time to make a joke or two.”I think we might change our nickname to some kind of Nautical themed one,” said Delani. “It’s kind of funny that the rain would come back again when we want to get this game in.”The Navs came into Thursday with an 0-3 record that was very deceiving as several of their core players are still with their college teams that are participating in the NCAA baseball playoff regionals. Delani is one person not truly concerned with how the club has started.”Being 0-3 right now is OK,” Delani said. “Our goals as a program are to be competitive as team certainly but to, ‘A’, return the players back to their college coaches healthy and ‘B”‘, to make them better than they were when they got here.”The Navs were a playoff team a season ago and the buzz is even bigger this year around the team as they have four players who have North Shore ties on their roster, four of them got the call to start in front of the home crowd this season.Lynnfield’s Jason Banos and Saugus’ Dario Pizzano were members of the Columbia University team that came within one game of qualifying for the NCAA tournament, losing to Dartmouth in the Ivy League finals. Pizzano also was named as a freshman All-America this week for his Rookie of the Year performance in the Ivy.Peabody native Matt Sucharewicz had a record setting junior season at St. Anselm and was a Division 3 All-America selection while Swampscott’s Hunter Gordon comes in off a solid freshman campaign at Boston College.Another local tie comes in the form of manager Jeff Waldron, a former star at Lynn Classical and a player who made it to Triple-A during his professional career.Having four local stars on the roster is something that Delani is proud of and hopes will draw more fans in to the bleachers.”We certainly would love to have the support of Lynn and the other local communities,” Delani said. “And having a good mix of local kids is tremendous for us.”Another feather in the cap of the Navs came earlier this week as five current and past players were chosen in the Major League Baseball draft, including current first baseman Ben Waldrip.”Having five draft picks is very exciting for us,” Delani said. “And that’s what this is all about. At the end of the day, you want to have players that are going to be picked. These are the kids who some day are going to hear their name called.”