The soft “tink” sound left no doubt whether a slicing fly ball down the left field line off the bat of Ryan Conley was fair or foul.
The two-run home run gave pitcher Brendan Cathcart a cushion to work with and he and his defense did the rest in leading the Norwood 15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars to an 8-2 win over Saugus to claim the EMass state title at Bowser Complex yesterday.
Conley’s homer gave Norwood a 4-1 lead in the fourth and left fielder heading into his sophomore year at Xaverian also crushed a double to center with two outs in the sixth to start a two-run frame.
“I thought it was foul,” said Conley of when it left his bat. “(The sound hitting the pole) was great.”
This year’s edition of the 15s was the first Norwood squad to win a state title since the 14s in 2005, with the 13s and 15s winning a year prior.
Norwood moves on to the New England Regional, which begins tomorrow at Rhode Island College in Providence, with Norwood getting underway on Wednesday, opening with WMass champions Westfield. The tournament will be an eight-team double elimination format with the Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont state champions, the two champions from the Bay State and host North Providence-Smithfield.
“I coached these kids when they were 13, 14 and 15, we won the district all three years and been to the states and we got a win each year. This year we kicked it in,” said Norwood manager John Lightizer. “I loved coaching them for three years. It feels so good right now.”
Cathcart went the distance, spreading out eight hits, a walk and two hit batters, and while the right-hander may have only fanned a pair he also picked baserunners off first base in each of the first two innings when he was still trying to settle into a groove.
Norwood played well defensively, getting a big boost from Billy Morrison at first with his ability to pick low throws from across the diamond while managing to keep a foot planted on the bag. Morrison also got the offense going in the first with a two-out flare to center with two outs scoring shortstop Tommy Munro and third baseman Sean O’Neill.
“We needed something to start us off, because we knew this game was ours, we had this for the entire tournament,” said Morrison. “That big single really got us going and we never let up from there.”
Saugus, which beat Braintree early in the day to gain the final after losing to Norwood Saturday night, pulled a run back in the last of the third. But Conley answered with the home run that just cleared the fence at the 282-foot mark, scoring catcher Owen Oliveira scoring in front of him. Oliveira kept the inning alive with a base hit up the middle after Saugus starter Kenny Runge retired the first two to start the inning.
O’Neill ripped an RBI double to left-center in the fifth, taking third as the ball was thrown away, and scored on a squeeze by Austin Glaser, pushing the lead to 6-1.
What could have been a big inning for Saugus in the fifth netted just one run because of a pair of baserunning mistakes. A slow bouncer up the middle by Scott Enos was fielded by Munro, who unsuccessfully tried to get the lead runner Steven Blaney at second, but Blaney got up and headed back toward the dugout and was tagged by second baseman Austin Glaser for the first out.
With two out and men at the corners after a Danny Groark hit, Al Nahigian lined a single to center that scored Enos, but Groark was thrown out by Andrew Alty at third to end the frame.
Norwood got strong starting pitching throughout the tournament with Tournament MVP Timmy Duggan utilizing an overpowering fastball in a 3-1 win over Saugus on Saturday night. The southpaw struck out 16 and allowed just two hits.
Saugus starting pitcher Scott Enos was nearly as strong, fanning 10, but thee 15s grabbed all their runs in the last of the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out. Andrew Stover knocked in Peter Kelly and Munro with a single for a 2-1 lead and Duggan gave himself an insurance run with a sacrifice fly that delivered O’Neill to the plate.
(Keith Pearson is Staff Writer for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8371 or kpearson@cnc.com.)
