Numbers help get Wildcats back to playoffs

Riley Zayicek and Zach Little didn’t think much about setting records when Lake Norman High’s baseball season began.

But as the year has progressed, record-setting seasons by Zayicek, Little and others have helped the Wildcats return to the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs for the ninth time in 13 years.

Heading into Lake Norman’s playoff opener against Winston-Salem Glenn on May 13, Zayicek, a junior third baseman, has set team records for home runs (six) and RBIs (26) and tied the record for triples (three).

“Some of my teammates told me I was close,” Zayicek said. “But I really didn’t focus on that. I was just trying to put a good swing on every pitch I could. I really didn’t think about it though.

“Stuff like that really isn’t on your mind when you’re at the plate. I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, I get one more hit, I break a record.’”

Meanwhile, Little – a senior shortstop – has set team records for singles (33) and hits in a game (six), and was one hit away from tying the Wildcats’ season hits record of 41.

“Coach (Trey Ramsey) told me I was close,” Little said. “But I really wasn’t thinking about that while I was hitting. I was just trying to get on base.”

As a team, Lake Norman – 16-8 entering the postseason – is also setting records. The Wildcats’ 231 hits and 12 home runs are second-best in program history, and the team’s .318 batting average and .420 on-base percentage are third-best.

“We knew offensively we had a special club,” said Ramsey, in his first season as Lake Norman’s coach. “The things they’ve been able to do in pulling out wins, really, we honestly shouldn’t have done. They’re very, very physically blessed.”

Both Zayicek and Little attribute the Wildcats’ offensive improvement to the off-season conditioning and practice program Ramsey instituted just after he was hired last July to replace Robert Little.

Little, now an assistant principal at South Iredell High, had coached Lake Norman’s baseball programs since the school opened in 2002, and led the Wildcats to the NCHSAA 3A state title in 2009.

“That’s part of our plan here – to run a fully comprehensive program, within the rules of the state,” Ramsey said. “We offered weight room four mornings a week all fall and winter when it was allowed, we did open fields once or twice a week, and we had eight-man workouts all fall except for the November dead period.

“We did as much as we could to give them as much as we legally could during the off season.”

However, now that Lake Norman is in the playoffs, the only record on the players’ minds is the won/lost record.

Since moving up to the 4A division in 2010, the year after winning the state title, the Wildcats have only advanced out of the first round twice and have never made it past the second round.

That’s one thing Zayicek would like to change this year. “I’d rather not break any records as long as we win a state championship,” he said.

This story was originally published May 16, 2015 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Numbers help get Wildcats back to playoffs."