Nick Herzog, Blue Waves baseball standout, signs with UMass-Boston

Riverhead High School pitcher Nick Herzog, of Wading River, has signed to play baseball with the University of Massahusetts-Boston Beacons on an academic scholarship.

Herzog, who was named All-County and All-League in his last season on the mound for the Blue Waves, helped lead Riverhead (12-8) to the playoffs, notching half of the teams wins, with a 6-1 W-L record. The lefty compiled  a 2.67 ERA and fanned 30 batters in the 2015.  When he wasn’t on the mound, Herzog was in the outfield. He’s an important part of the Waves’ lineup, batting .353, with a .421 on-base percentage, 2 HRs and 13 RBIs.

“Herzog is best known for his curveball, the best I’ve ever seen,” Maccone said. “It’s his out pitch. He can throw it for a strike. He can throw it in the dirt.”

The southpaw pitcher bats right-handed. “He hits with power, from gap to gap,” Maccone said. He was a threat every time he came up to the plate. He also had 8 stolen bases.

Flanked by his parents, Scott and Debbie Herzog, his coach Robert Maccone, Riverhead High School principal Charles Regan and Riverhead Central School District athletics director William Groth, Herzog inked a ceremonial acceptance letter yesterday at the Riverhead High School library.

“Nick is all all-around great kid,” guidance counselor Craig Korobow said. “He’s an intelligent, yet humble, young man.” He’s so successful not just because of his natural athletic abilities, but because of his excellent work-ethic, Korobow said.  An honors student who was taking AP courses by his sophomore year in high school, Nick has excelled in the classroom as well as on the baseball diamond.

Herzog, 18,  said he’s planning to major in business or engineering at UMass. He will both pitch and play outfield for the Beacons.

Ending his career as a Blue Wave by making the playoffs caps a youth and prep baseball career that started in Little League and continued through high school. He also played with the Riverhead Waves travel team and the L.I. Mariners.

His favorite moments this year were his extra-inning win over Half Hollow Hills West, when he got the final out on a pop fly to right —  and his grand slam home run in the Waves’ 16-8 win over Newfield.

“That was sweet,” Herzog said yesterday.  But the Waves making the playoffs in his senior year was the icing on the cake, he said. “That’s will always be the best memory of all.”