North Shore Baseball: Raiders' Unexpected Road to a Title

If there was a team that was going to end North Shore’s championship drought, many thought it would have been in 2010 They rolled through the Independent School League -- winning the conference championship easily -- and were deeper than the 2011 version.

“Last year we had a lot of talent and we were expected to do pretty well,” North Shore coach Martin Freeman said. “

Despite an excellent regular season, the Raiders’ season ended in a 4-3 loss to Westminster Christian in the regional final. Westminster Christian went on to win the IHSA Class A state championship.

How good was North Shore’s 2010 team? The score of Westminster’s state championship victory was 15-5.

But because of its size, Westminster Christian was bumped up to Class 2A this season, giving a golden opportunity to a number of local schools who had been unable to advance past the perennial state power.

Still, the regional championship was never a given for North Shore. The Raiders graduated a number of players from last year’s team and catcher Steve Smith, who is now a junior, chose not to play baseball this season.

“This year we didn’t even know if we’d have numbers to field a team,” Freeman said.

North Shore ended up with only 12 players on its final roster and had a rocky start to the season. They started playing better baseball midway through the season and managed to win the ISL for the second straight season.

The Raiders defeated Morgan Park Academy, 7-5, in the regional semifinals before taking care of St. Benedict on Saturday.

“I’ve been on the team since freshman and we haven’t won it," pitcher Jake Kann said. "It means a lot to the team, especially since we almost didn’t have a team to start the year.”