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April 2, 2009 - By Drew Smith
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The most applicable word to describe North baseball's varsity program is "young.″ There are only two seniors on the team, Arron Lafountaine and Joseph Samuel and there are five freshmen including a starting shortstop Denis Banks. Despite this, beating King, last year's Ivy League champions, by a whopping 9 runs was definitely a promising victory. King graduated only four players last year; North graduated eleven. This would appear to put North's program at an obvious disadvantage but apparently athleticism and the team's young talent is really coming through.
Also, this is only Steve Madril's third year coaching at North but for each year he has coached, huge improvements have been made to the program. Three years ago, North had an extremely dismal season with an embarrassing record of 1-15. Coach Madril was hired the next year and North's record improved to 6 – 14. The next year varsity made it into playoffs for the first time in almost a decade but was knocked out in the first round as they were shut out by one of the most talented pitchers in the nation. Coming so far, from a record of 1-15 to a CIF appearance in only a matter of a few seasons is a huge achievement that North baseball should be proud of.
This year varsity will hope to reach the playoffs and get even further than they did last year and it appears they have the talent to do so. Senior Aaron Lafountaine, varsity team captain, is a returning first-team all leaguer. Lafountaine is a talented center fielder with speed in the outfield and a good swing. Carson Tripanny is another returning first team all leaguer. He gets a lot of starts on the mound and is considered the team's "ace.″ Other notable players include catcher Jacob Dominguez who has a strong arm behind the plate, right-fielder Steven Pena who is very athletic, Denis Banks who is only a freshman but is starting at shortstop - one of the most difficult positions, and Joseph Samuel who is still pitching strong despite injuries to his throwing arm.
Again, North is a young team which will have to rely on athleticism and pure talent rather than age and experience. They hope to continue improving the program getting further into CIF than last year's "stacked" senior program was able to do. Varsity baseball here at North will definitely be something worth keeping your eye on this season and even more so in the seasons to come as the talented young players, especially those already on varsity, continue to gain more and more experience.
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