First-year Lawrence baseball coach Tommy Beirne has been impressed by the level of play in the Nassau’s Countywide Conference and believes the Golden Tornadoes can have a big say in the final standings.
“We’ve been in the top three the whole way and we might be able to make a little noise at the end,” said Beirne, who brought plenty of college coaching experience to the program.
Lawrence rebounded from back-to-back losses to Sewanhaka last week to defeat visiting Great Neck North on May 2, 7-4, behind senior hurler John Loughlin. He left after the top of the fifth with the score knotted at 3-3 but the Golden Tornadoes (7-5 with four games remaining) scored three times in the bottom of the inning to make him the pitcher of record.
“John has been our steady go-to guy,” Beirne said. “He held Great Neck down for five innings and we got him some runs. He slid into our No. 1 spot early in the year and we rely on him to go to the full amount on his pitch count. He has a decent fastball and a good curve and off-speed.”
Senior Tyler Kim (.415 batting average, 16 runs, four strikeouts in 45 plate appearances) opened the season as one of Lawrence’s aces but only made one outing before injuring his labrum diving into first base. He was cleared to continue playing but only as a second baseman, Beirne said, and leads the defense up the middle along with twin brother Harrison, the starting shortstop. “Tyler didn’t miss any games and it was a relief because he’s also one of our better hitters,” the coach noted.