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R&L Baseball Player of the Year: Lake Norman's Nick Lomascolo
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Published: June 28, 2009
Lake Norman's journey to the 3A state baseball championship started long before the first pitch was thrown this season. The seeds were sewn when the Wildcats were eliminated in the third round of the 2008 playoffs by eventual runner-up East Rowan.
"After we lost to East Rowan, we had a meeting," senior pitcher Nick Lomascolo recalled. "We set goals for this season. The first one we set was to win the state championship, and we did.
"We just worked really hard as a team and didn't ride one player the whole way."
Maybe not, but it would be hard to argue Lomascolo, the R&L County Baseball Player of the Year, didn't do some of the heavy lifting. The Catawba College-bound lefthander was phenomenal on the hill, posting a 9-2 record with an earned-run average of 1.88. Three of his victories were shutouts, one was a no-hitter, and he averaged 10.83 strikeouts per outing.
Lomascolo's offensive numbers weren't as mind blowing, but he batted .304 with 18 RBIs for the Wildcats, who finished 28-3.
"Any time we pitched Nick, we knew we were going to get six innings, if not seven," Lake Norman coach Robert Little said.
"That is so key when you can roll him out there and you know you've shortened the ballgame to a two-inning ballgame," Little added. "The first five innings, usually Nick is pretty much unhittable. I'm not saying he's hittable in the last two; it's just that you've shortened the ballgame, and that's what we tried to do. Nick did a fabulous job on it."
Lomascolo took it up a notch in the playoffs, though, and really shined when it mattered most. He was named the championship MVP after the Wildcats defeated Eastern Wayne in the third game of their best-of-three series June 6.
He did plenty to merit such an honor, too. Lomascolo pitched one inning to earn the save in Lake Norman's 8-7 title-clinching victory. But that wasn't all. His two-run double opened the scoring in a five-run second inning and he also threw out a runner at home plate while playing centerfield to preserve the Wildcats' 5-4 lead in the third inning.
"I was going out there and just trying to do what I'm supposed to do to help the team," Lomascolo said, downplaying his MVP performance.
He left his mark early in the state finals. The Wildcats have a superb pitching staff, but they leaned on their ace to deliver in the series opener.
Lomascolo didn't disappoint. Facing a powerful lineup that included a .540 hitter with 16 home runs and 51 RBIs, he struck out nine and allowed five hits in a complete-game effort that helped pave the way for Lake Norman's 9-2 win.
Despite the poise he showed, Lomascolo said he felt some pressure to keep his team from falling into a one-game hole in the series.
"I definitely did before the game. After the first pitch, it was just like another game to me," Lomascolo said. "It was just getting that first pitch out of the way, and that first inning out of the way. Then it was just another game.
"It was a lot of fun."
That is how he also described his game-winning hit in Game 2 of the West Regional finals against Tuscola, which propelled Lake Norman to the state finals for the first time in program history. With the score tied at 6-all in the bottom of the seventh after Lake Norman blew a three-run lead in the top half of the inning, Lomascolo came to the plate with two outs and runners at third and first.
Tuscola had just intentionally walked shortstop and potent leadoff hitter Kevin Gradert to get to Lomascolo.
The strategy failed.
"I didn't want to let the team down," he said. "They walked Gradert. I was just going to show them that I could hit, too."
He did. Lomascolo stroked the second pitch over the third baseman's head and into fair territory to drive home the series-clinching run.
Being clutch at the plate isn't uncommon for him. Little pointed out two other instances this season when Lomascolo came through with the timeliest of hits.
"Not all of them were in the last inning, but they ended up being game-winners," Little said. "So he's been in that situation before to bat. And pitching, I don't think there's any stronger competitor out there right now in this area. He wanted the ball. Me and him were actually on the elevator that morning (of games two and three of the state finals). He said, 'Coach, my arm feels great. If you need an inning or two out of me, I can do it.' "
Now Lomascolo is preparing to lend his services to Catawba, which finished 36-18 this season after losing in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament.
His state championship honeymoon is shorter than some of the other Wildcats.
"We're probably going to do pretty good next year," he said. "I'm really excited about it, but I've got to start doing their workouts for the summer and get ready."
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