Derry resident and former Pinkerton Academy baseball standout Tim Viehoff will have plenty of reasons to remember quite fondly what he did on the diamond during the summer of 2015.
Viehoff, who is about to begin his junior year at Southern New Hampshire University, starred for the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s (NECBL) Laconia Muskrats this summer. The talented left-handed pitcher led the entire league in wins with five and in strikeouts with 58, and he finished fourth in earned run average with 1.77.
The Pinkerton graduate led the Lakes Region-based contingent to a 17-13 record through its first 30 games by posting a 4-1 record and tallying a 1.80 ERA. Those numbers earned the 6-foot-4, 200-pound hurler the starting assignment for his squad’s division in the NECBL all-star game in mid-July. That contest ended up being rained out but there was no question that Viehoff had earned the honor with his early-season pitching.
The Muskrats wound up struggling through the final few weeks of the 2015 campaign and ended up 4-8 in their final dozen contests. Viehoff continued to do some strong work on the hill during that tough span, posting a 1-0 record and lowering his earned run average.
One glowing example of Viehoff’s continued dominance on the mound came in a heartbreaking loss to the North Adams (Mass.) Steeple- Cats in Laconia during the final days of July.
North Adams trailed 4-2 heading into the top of the ninth inning after Viehoff had frustrated it through the first eight frames. But the Bay State bunch then reached the Muskrats’ relief pitching staff for five runs on three straight singles, a walk, and a home run to stun the home crowd and take another impressive win from Viehoff.
The Derry man was nothing short of brilliant yet again in that contest, allowing just one earned run and one hit while striking out eight.
The sloppy team finish left the Laconia crew with a .500 record of 21-21, but Viehoff and his teammates still qualified for a playoff series with the Vermont Mountaineers.
The Muskrats dropped both games in that post-season series and were eliminated from the playoffs.
In competing for the Laconia squad, the Derry lefty got to play with athletes from all over the nation, and his former Pinkerton teammate and star catcher Nate Rossi was also among the Laconia talent.
Other players on the squad were standouts from schools in Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri, and the team’s manager was Saint Anselm pitching coach Nick Cenatiempo. Viehoff was one of eight Laconia players selected as a league all-star.
Prior to enjoying such stellar success with Laconia during the summer campaign, Viehoff tallied a fine 2015 season for the SNHU Penmen, posting a 5-3 record with an earned run average of 1.69. The former PA standout struck out 82 batters in 58.2 innings worth of work, and walked 24 men.
He struck out four or more batters in 10 different games for the Penmen, and he whiffed 11 would-be hitters in back-to-back appearances against Bentley and Saint Anselm.
The SNHU hardball team went 31-14 overall during 2015, and Viehoff played a major role on a SNHU pitching staff.
