COURTESY PHOTO
Navigators pitcher Speros Varinos has been honing his skills in the Cape Cod League earlier this summer.
By JOSHUA KUMMINS
LYNN — New England is home to some of the finest summer collegiate baseball anywhere.
The Cape Cod League has always been the pinnacle, and two members of the North Shore Navigators recently got the chance to step up and test themselves with and against the best players in the country.
Although Tufts University pitcher Speros Varinos and UMass Lowell outfielder Colby Maiola were only on the Cape for a short time, the lessons learned and friendships made will last a lifetime.
“It was an amazing experience, and those guys down there don’t cheat themselves,” the North Reading native said. “They’re in the gym every day, get there an hour before they need to to take some swings. I went down there looking to just take a piece of that back and improve upon any piece of my game that I could.”
Maiola is set to make the jump to the Division 1 level after spending this spring at Northern Essex Community College, where he hit a whopping .453 with ten home runs and 42 RBI en route to being named National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III National Player of the Year.
After tasting success (.263 average in seven games) with the Brewster Whitecaps, Maiola is happy to return home and spend the rest of the summer with the Navs, including some familiar faces.
Navs outfielder MacDaniel Singleton played with Maiola at Northern Essex before he transferred to Salem State for this season, while catcher Keith Linnane was his teammate this spring as the Knights advanced to the NJCAA World Series.
“I kind of knew that once my (temporary contract) on the Cape was up, this is where I wanted to play just because it was close to home and all my friends had great experiences here,” Maiola said. “I thought it would be a great fit for me.”
Both Maiola and Varinos made strong season debuts for the Navs this weekend, but it was the former who made the biggest splash in last Friday’s 8-0 win over Martha’s Vineyard as he became the first player in franchise history to homer in his first FCBL game. Maiola homered twice in his first six games with the club.
“Any time you can have a National Player of the Year playing for you, that’s an awesome thing,” Navs manager John Zizzo said. “He definitely showed why he is that.”
A Middleton native, Varinos pitched in two games out of the bullpen for the league-leading Harwich Mariners during his Cape stint.
Varinos excelled in a similar back-end role last summer for the Navigators. Now, after spending time on Cape Cod, he knows that success can be taken to the highest level of college baseball.
“The biggest takeaway was that I think I can compete against those types of players,” Varinos said. “It was a big confidence boost coming back here and going into next spring at school as well.”
The former Masconomet standout made 26 appearances and converted 13 saves for last summer’s Navs, setting franchise records in both categories. He was named a Futures League All-Star and, at the end of the season, its Relief Pitcher of the Year.
This spring at Tufts however, Varinos took on a different role. He worked his way to the top of the Jumbos’ rotation and won NESCAC Pitcher of the Year honors, going 7-1 with a 2.15 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 67 innings of work.
“Last summer, I went in throwing as hard as I could for one inning, so it was kind of daunting at the start to go six or seven innings at the start to help put my team in a good position,” Varinos said. “After those first three starts or so, it’s been pretty easy now.”
Varinos made his first start as a Navigator this summer in last Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Seacoast, tossing six innings without allowing an earned run.
Names and Notes
- First baseman Alex Brickman (Siena) hit two home runs in the Navs’ 4-2 win Wednesday night in Worcester. He became the first Navigator to post a multi-homer game since Salem State’s Richie Fecteau turned the feat at Seacoast on July 28, 2015.
- Evan Glew (Northern Essex C.C.) and Nahant’s Al Wallach (Framingham State) both joined the Navs pitching staff this week. Glew pitched five innings of two-hit ball in the June 21 win over Wachusett, while Wallach debuted with a scoreless ninth inning to close out Friday’s shutout.
- Outfielder Ben Kennedy was added to the roster this weekend and started in right field Saturday. He is the Navs’ first-ever player from the University of Texas.
- The Navs picked up their first win over Martha’s Vineyard and their first shutout of the season last Friday. Last year’s club pitched six shutouts, including two over the final nine games.
- Last Thursday’s 4-3 loss to Martha’s Vineyard snapped a five-game winning streak that was the longest running in the FCBL at the time.
- Infielder Joey Pena (St. Thomas Aquinas) hit safely in the final four games of last week, scored three times in two different contests and extended his season-long, on-base streak to 26 games. He paced the Navs offense Friday, going 4-for-4 with two doubles.
- Outfielder MacDaniel Singleton (Salem State) jumped into the league leaders Monday, sporting the seventh-best average in the league at .351. He was one of three Navs regulars hitting above the .300 mark at week’s beginning, joining Pena and fellow infielder Nick DiBenedetto (Trinity).
- Richie Cruz (Florida International) struck out eight Sharks and allowed just five hits last Thursday. With that effort, he became the first Navs starter to pitch seven innings in a game this season.
Joshua Kummins can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKummins.
