Newsday's Athlete of the Week is Billy Kind of Seaford baseball

The only thing that wasn’t perfect about Billy Kind’s Tuesday was his ability to make it end.

Kind just couldn’t find sleep late Tuesday night, thoughts of his afternoon firing in his head. And, just like the baseballs that Kind had thrown at Locust Valley hitters a few hours earlier, he just couldn’t bat them away.

Kind pitched a perfect game and struck out five batters in Seaford’s 11-0 win over Locust Valley in Nassau Conference B. The senior, who is headed to Adelphi and is Newsday’s Athlete of the Week, needed 70 pitches to complete the feat.

“It really hit me in the morning,” Kind said. “I couldn’t really fall asleep (Tuesday) night, just thinking about that. When I woke up, I thought ‘wow, it wasn’t a dream. I actually did it.’ ”

On Wednesday afternoon, Kind reflected on the fragility of perfection. One bad pitch, one bad throw, or the absence of an outstanding catch by outfielder Luke Walsh in the bottom of the fourth inning and Tuesday could have been just another ‘almost’ that Kind would likely forget about by summer (or still be stewing over in 2045).

“At any moment, I could have hit a batter or a ball could have blooped in,” Kind said. “But no, it just happened. It was unreal. Knowing all the different possibilities that could have happened, but didn’t, and we kept the perfect game going, was amazing.”

Kind knows the feeling of baseball paradise lost. He had a no-hitter broken up in the seventh inning earlier this season.

“It hit the ground and you heard everyone sigh a little bit,” catcher Stephen Ierides said of the almost no-no. “Even on the other team, some kid said ‘oh, that (stinks).’ But, it happens and it’s part of the game.”

Kind agreed: “I felt it a little bit at first, but I moved on really fast. We had a great team win that day and, as long as the team’s doing well. I’m happy.”

The potential for another ‘so-close’ moment nearly happened again Tuesday when Ierides dropped the third strike of the game’s final at-bat. Not wanting to rush things, Ierides took a step towards first and fired a strike of his own. If Kind was going to be up all night, it wasn’t going to be because of him.  

“It was a low slider that swept out of the zone, so it was hard for (Ierides) to block it,” Kind said. “He was blocking everything, but I didn’t expect him to get that one. He got it up off the ground and we got (the runner) at first . . . It was just excitement after that.”

And little sleep.