Thursday, October 1, 2026
With North Shore’s softball team losing six starters, the Vikings will rely heavily on middle-school talent.
Yes, four middle-schoolers are in the starting lineup, including its ace pitcher, eighth-grader Lucia Minsky.
But after going just 3-13 last season, North Shore already has two wins through six contests.
On the 2-4 start, senior catcher Elsa Lanne said: "The beginning of the season, we're becoming more of a team. The two wins we have is a strong start. It's been really fun so far.''
North Shore posted victories over Baldwin (8-7 in extra innings on March 26) and New Hyde Park (17-3 on April 6).
"We're off to a better start than last year but this will be a year of growth because they are very young,'' said coach Nicki Petrucci, in her third season after playing college ball at Old Westbury.
The next test for the Sea Cliff/Glen Head program is Thursday versus Manhasset. "We have a very young team after graduating 8 seniors last year and will be looking to a few middle schoolers to anchor key positions,'' Petrucci said.
The star player is Lanne, who handles the young ace, Minsky. Lanne is 17 while Minsky is only 13.
"She's amazing for her age,'' Lanne said. "She's super brave being a pitcher at such a young age. She really dominates, helps our team win.''
A leadoff hitter, Lanne is batting .444 with six runs scored. Despite a 13-3 loss to Hewlett April 11, Lanne went 3 for 4.
"She's a consistent force offensively but she's also a good defensive catcher,'' Petrucci said. "She wasn't formally trained so it's all natural ability. Her freshman year she said she wanted to be a catcher and it worked out''
Lanne has started since sophomore year. "I hadn't really played the position, but I started to get into it,'' Lanne said. "The opportunity opened to start playing catcher.''
Last season's losing wasn't easy but morale remained high. "We were a strong team emotionally," Lanne said. "We worked together. The teams we faced were really tough for us. This year we lost six starters so it is hard to recover from that.''
The co-star is junior third baseman Megan Whitcomb, hitting .429. "She's really strong in the field and at bat,'' Petrucci said. "A good leader.'''
The Vikings will need sophomore shortstop Adrianna Collura to continue with the hot bat as she started off at .400.
Another top middle-school prospect is seventh-grader Kyra Cowan, a middle infielder who is 5 years younger than Lanne. The other two middle-school starters are eighth-grade center fielder Abby Hsi and Ava Rechner, a seventh-grader who plays both outfield and infield.
In adding Minsky straight to varsity, Petrucci attended a middle-school practice after last season's three-win campaign and was shocked. She saw Minsky as a potential starting pitcher for the varsity immediately because of the Vikings' graduation losses.
"There's a lot of potential,'' Petrucci said. "They're really young, so we can build on it. We're growing and working through it day by day.
“We want to improve from last year. If we can make the playoffs or be .500, great. But we'll set smaller goals and work our way up and improve from last season.''
