Carey’s Hornets down Rams in Clancy opener

by Stephen Delvecchio, North Shore Navigators Sports Information Department

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With the North Shore Navigators’ season less than two weeks from getting underway, an annual Lynn tradition continued Sunday with the opening of the 28^th annual Nipper Clancy Memorial Baseball Tournament. The first of four games at Fraser featured The North Reading High School Hornets taking on one of three Lynn teams annually present for the tournament, Lynn Classical High School. First year head coach Mike Zukowiski lead the Classical Rams onto the field for introductions while North Reading was lead by Navigator’s own Frank Carey, a well known baseball figure throughout the north shore and director of baseball operations with our very own North Shore Navigators.

North Reading (17-2) Head Coach Frank Carey talked a bit about the pitching matchup after the game, which pitted Classical’s Luis Castillo against North Reading’s Kevin O’Leary. Lynn Classical (4-15) has struggled all year and come up on the short end of some tough games, many of which have come with Castillo on the bump. Coach Carey acknowledged that he thought Castillo pitched well in the losing effort.

“I thought he was really good,” Carey said, “we chased a few high pitches and then started to try to force him to get the ball down more. When he did we seemed to hit a lot better.” Coach Carey also went on to say that he was impressed with the way his team played, and said that bunting was a big part of their game today, as well as all season long, and got them into a position where they could score runs, which eventually allowed them to come out on top, 7-1.

The 28^th Nipper Clancy Memorial tournament is always somewhat of a homecoming for Coach Carey. When asked how he felt about the Clancy Tournament overall, Carey described himself as having been “at the ground floor when it all started.” Carey, amongst others, was one of the founders of the idea of having a baseball tournament amongst the four high school teams that call Lynn home.

“When one of the four Lynn teams chose not to participate, I elected to include North Reading,” Carey said. “The coaches of the four teams involved at the time we came up with the idea had all played for ‘Nipper’ Clancy and that’s how we came up with the idea of calling it the Nipper Clancy Memorial Tournament.”

Although understandably pleased with his team’s performance in the game, Carey was not exactly thrilled with the turnout for the tournament.

“I was disappointed in the turnout. We’ve had a lot more people show up in the past years,” Carey explained.

Coach Carey also had time to shed a bit of light upon the upcoming NECBL season. Although he has yet to see any of the Navigators’ players in competition, he said he has seen many of the players from other teams in all-star games and that the competition should be very exciting to watch.