Hayden Shattuck will be one of the players Bishop Guertin will be counting on this spring. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

The names have changed in a big way.

That’s because a year ago, they weren’t around on any baseball fields you could find.

However, this is 2021, and high school baseball is back. But you may need a scorecard to tell the players.

Remember, this year’s seniors, the last time they competed on a diamond for their high school, they were sophomores – either on varsity or on JV.

“Like everyone else, we’ll be featuring an almost entirely new roster for the upcoming season,” Nashua North coach Zach Harris said. “We’ll be relying on a lot of new faces to step up and fill key roles.”

Catcher Ben Flanders will be one of the players counted on by the Merrimack High School baseball team this spring. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

The good thing is, just about everyone else will, too – and some with new coaches. This will be the first season since 1983 that Alvirne won’t have Mike Lee at the helm, Lee retiring last year. That mantle has been passed on to one of his former players, Adam Perkins.

Campbell looks for stability with new coach Chris Metz, the program’s third head coach since the retirement of famed Jim Gorham at the end of the 2017 championship season. And Merrimack has its fourth coach in the last five seasons in Mike Dudash.

Here’s a look at the locals, who will play the similar regional schedule they did in the fall and winter, with presumably an open tournament playing out of those regions come late May, early June.

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DIVISION I

Nashua North's Travis Holbrook gets ready to make a throw during a drill at the Titans' first practice in nearly two years recently. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

North has senior pitcher-infielder Alex Meesig, who will be headed to Assumption in the fall, and senior outfielder- pitcher-catcher Corey O’Day, who will play at New England College next year.

Other keys for the Titans include seniors Liam Novak (pitcher-infield), Jimmy Reel (pitcher-outfielder), Tommy Kelly (pitcher-utility), junior Ryan Bourgeois (catcher-outfielder) and sophomore Derek Finlay (infield).

Nashua South was hard-hit by the year off. There is just one every day starter back, senior outfielder Chris Keefe.

Key players who likely would have started last year are senior catcher Jeff Lugo, junior infielder-outfielder River Hart, and junior pitcher-infielder Nolan Mederos.

“We were hit pretty hard by graduation, and lost the season last year,” Panthers coach James Gaj said.

The last time we saw the Cardinals of Bishop Guertin, it was after a disappointing upset loss to Bedford in the 2019 Division I quarterfinals at Holman Stadium.

“We don’t have the same caliber of pitching we had two years ago,” Cards coach Scott Painter said, “but we have a full roster of talented baseball players who will compete against anyone in the state.”

Some of those include senior infielder-pitcher Jake Mitchell, senior catcher-first baseman-pitcher Kyle Lavigne, senior first baseman-outfielder Hayden Shattuck, junior infielder-outfielder-pitcher Kam Thibault and junior catcher-first baseman Max Riordan.

Alvirne players, meanwhile, are no stranger to Perkins, who was on Lee’s staff. Keys for the Broncos are returnees center fielder Jake Dufour, catcher Evan Beals, shortstop Jagger Forsyth, infielder-pitcher Kyle Boulanger and top pitchers Nick Jaques (can also play first base) and Jacob Hobart (can also play infield-outfield).

As Perkins said, the Broncos team that finished 6-13 in 2019 was very young, and he felt that group was going to make Lee’s potential last year a special one.

Instead, it will try to make his inaugural year the same.

“Our 2021 season is going to be heavily relied on by our senior class,” he said. “It will be up to their leadership to continue to play the game the right way.”

That’s what Dudash wants for Merrimack, which has struggled the last few years leading up to last spring’s cancellation.

“Overall, the Merrimack baseball program wants to be a respectable and competitive Division I baseball program,” he said. “But after an entire season lost to COVID, we’re looking for some type of balance, which includes being competitive, while enjoying playing the game.”

Dudash, who has coached most of the players at the middle school level, has a pair of good senior catchers in Ben Flanders and Ryan Slate, plus a key multiposition player in Michael Lyma. Also look for junior Ayden Curran to be one of the top Tomahawk hurlers while also playing first base. Two key positions up the middle, shortstop and center field, may go to juniors Dylan Brander and Aiden Ponder, respectively.

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DIVISION II

When we last left the Hollis Brookline Cavaliers, they were lamenting a tough loss in the Division II finals.

That was, of course, two years ago, but the Cavs do get a boost this year when one of those players who pitched well in that game, Brandon Hsu, returns after a year away at a prep school.

“He’s an excellent All-State level player who pitched as a sophomore,” Cavs coach Jay Sartell said.

In fact, Hsu was a Second Teamer. A couple of other key seniors will be outfielder-pitcher Jack Begin and infielder-pitcher Drew Gryniewicz. Junior outfielder-pitcher Padraig McSeain also is expected to make an impact.

The Cavs had a very strong JV team in 2019, and as Sartell said, “we’ve added several quality players from the JV ranks. It’s great to be back, and we’re going to spend our time getting back to (the) basics and wrapping our minds around the format of the season.”

Souhegan senior righty Nick Wilson, who pitched for the Merrimack entry in the NHCBL last summer, will be counted on heavily, headed to Plymouth State next year. The Sabers also have junior righty Dylan Dufour and lefty Ryan Bagshaw, plus they got two transfers, Colin and Keegan Burke. They’ll pitch and solidify the infield.

Wilson, along with seniors Reese Colby and David Rieth, plus juniors Bagshaw and Dufour, are the only Sabers with varsity experience.

These are their keys, plus the fact the lineup is balanced righty-lefty. Souhegan coach Tom Walker feels that the work in summer- and fall-league play shows the Sabers, “have the talent to be a contender.”

Milford does have three key seniors – shortstop-pitcher Brandon Shaw, catcher Ben O’Connell and infield-outfield-pitcher Holden Bertoncini. Also keep an eye on junior third baseman-pitcher Damian Philbrick, infielder Jake Lammi and a sophomore, pitcher-infielder-outfielder Trice Cote.

Again, the theme is youth.

“We’re very young with only seven upperclassmen,” Spartans coach Todd Robichaud said. “If we compete until the final pitch in every game, limit mistakes and get timely hits, we will be successful.”

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DIVISION III

Metz has some key players to build around, playing more of a Division II schedule level. Look for junior pitcher-shortstop Ryan Lastsha, seniors Andrew Durfee (pitcher-outfielder), Gerard Perry (senior catcher), Will McPherson (senior infielder-pitcher) and freshman Jack Kidwell (freshman infielder-pitcher) to be impact players.

“We’re improving every day, and we are ready to go out on (Monday at Souhegan) and compete,” Metz said.

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DIVISION IV

The Warriors, with new coach Tom Brennan, earlier this week were struggling with low numbers, but were hoping to compete. They have two very familiar names to set the tone, Sean and Troy Brennan, and were hoping to try and go from there, playing a schedule that included teams above their division due to locale.

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