After going to the state semifinal game against Valley View last season, the Northwestern Lehigh varsity baseball team comes into the 2019 season with high expectations and a bull’s-eye on its back. With that comes some added pressure, but also some added swagger to a team that finished last season 19-8 overall.

The Tigers lost eight players from last year’s team, with the biggest loss possibly being catcher Tyler Wiik. The current Bloomsburg University player caught every game of his high school career from his first as a freshman to the team’s final game in states in 2018. To replace Wiik, coach Duran Porrino got a little creative, moving Derek Holmes, who was a first team all-league player at third base last season, to behind the plate.

With Holmes catching, Northwestern will at times employ a brotherly battery as freshman Justin Holmes joins the team off his first varsity sports season in football. The younger Holmes will be pitching and playing outfield for Northwestern Lehigh this season.

Porrino is hoping that Justin Holmes will have the same type of success as a freshman that his football teammate Nick Henry had last year coming off his freshman season with the football team.

“Justin Holmes is probably already the strongest kid on the team and maybe even on the football team,” said Porrino. “He’s sort of an athletic freak and we’re going to put him out on the field day one even though he’s a freshman. He almost reminds me of how Nick was a year ago coming in as a freshman after having some varsity time in football. It’s a guy taking to varsity in football and then coming into the lineup right away in baseball and we’re sort of expecting the same thing.”

In a world where a big debate is players going from public schools to private schools to compete in athletics, Northwestern is benefiting this time around from pitcher Carter Welch transferring from Allentown Central Catholic to Northwestern. Ironically, Welch pitched against the Tigers in the District 11 championship game last season and was up 4-1 late in the game before Northwestern came from behind to get the win.

“He’s only a sophomore and he’s already a Division 1 pitching prospect,” Porrino said. “It’s been years since we had a Division 1 pitching prospect, so he may be a difference maker for us this year.”

Another potential Division 1 pitcher, who is also drawing attention from major league scouts, is Rafe Perich, a sophomore. Combine Justin Holmes, Welch, Perich and junior Vinny Castrine, who pitched in all three of Northwestern’s state playoff games last season and the Tigers should have plenty of depth on the mound.

The Tigers also have plenty of offensive punch, giving them what Porrino believes may be the best balanced team that he’s had in his 10 seasons at Northwestern.

The only concern for Porrino is that his team will start to believe the early press about how good they should be this season and get a little too much confidence. As Porrino explained, having high goals is a good thing, but when you’re expected to at least match going to the state semifinals, some overconfidence can creep in along with some added pressure.

“That’s my biggest worry is that some people expect it to happen again just like that, but it takes a lot of luck and work,” he said. “People forget we were down 4-1 in the sixth inning of the district championship game and came back to win, so it’s not easy. The thing I’m stressing about the most is that everyone looks at us and sees our talent and just assumes we’re going to do it again.”