Walpole High junior Eric Fallon kept the Norwood High baseball team off balance all night long and tossed a complete game five-hit shutout as the Rebels downed the Mustangs 2-0 at Peter Wall Field last night.
It marked the 11th time this season the Norwood had come off the field on the short end of the scoreboard in 17 contests. In most normal circumstances, the Mustangs would be eliminated from the postseason tournament, but Norwood was granted a lifeline as a protest filed on May 7 from their 4-1 loss to Natick was upheld, resulting in a replay against the Redmen scheduled for Sunday (3:45 p.m.) at Norwood High School.
Fallon tossed his first varsity complete game, needing just 97 pitches, 70 for strikes, to get 27 outs. The junior only allowed nine men to reach, working out of his biggest trouble in the first, fourth and seventh innings. He walked only one and struck out five, moving the ball around the strike zone effectively, especially to Norwood’s big bats like Cory Sennott and Jesse Shaughnessy.
“My changeup felt good, I kept throwing that a lot and my curveball felt pretty good,” said Fallon, who is still coming back from a right broken humerus bone he suffered while throwing a pitch in a game over the summer following his freshman year.
Walpole improved to 13-4 overall, 10-4 in the Bay State Herget, one game in the loss column behind Milton, which was upset Wednesday by Needham.
Both teams left men at second and third in the first inning, with Norwood starter Chris Foley working around a walk, infield single that deflected off the umpire and a double steal with three of his 10 strikeouts, saving his best fastball of the inning for last to fan Joe Drinkwater
Fallon had to deal with a leadoff infield single, a one out throwing error and a stolen base by getting Joe Trahon looking at a curveball and Nico Rodriguez bouncing back to the box.
Foley averted trouble once again in the third as second baseman Sean Keady tracked down Joe Cabral’s soft liner in shallow right to strand Niccolo Mastromatteo at second.
Walpole finally got on the board in the fourth as Sam Murray drove the first pitch of the inning to right-center for a standup triple. One out later, Chris Ferro belted an 0-2 curveball that caught too much of the plate for an RBI double to left.
Norwood put a threat together in the home half as Trahon doubled to right-center and Nico Rodriguez lined a single through the left side to start the inning with men at the corners. Fallon picked up a strikeout and then picked Rodriguez off 1-3-6 as the runner left for second before Fallon started his delivery, and got a fly ball to end the inning.
“The key play was when we picked off the runner,” said Walpole coach Bill Tompkins. “There was one out and I’m saying, ‘Well, if we can get out of this inning tied at 1. If we get out this inning at 1-1 we’re alright. We just don’t want to give them a big inning.’ Then he picked him off of first.
“Then he continued to throw strikes and we continued to play defense, we did make a couple errors, but they didn’t seem to bother him. He was in complete control, every time I walked out (to the mound) I saw a big smile on his face.”
Niccolo Mastromatteo manufactured a run in the fifth, leading off the inning with a line drive through the middle, stealing second and taking third on a Bill Hickey groundout. Cabral picked up the RBI that Keady took away from him with a sacrifice fly to left-center, Mastromatteo just slid under a strong one-hop throw from Jake Finney for a 2-0 lead.
It’s hits like Ferro’s double and Cabral getting the fly ball to the outfield and Norwood’s inability to do so in 2008 that have put the Mustangs in the precarious position they currently find themselves in the midst of.
“Both pitchers pitched well, defenses were pretty solid all around, basically Walpole executed when they had guys on, they got the runner home,” said Norwood coach Tony Fruci. “We had situations where we had guys in scoring position but couldn’t put the bat on the ball and get him home.”
Fallon got a pair of fly balls to center in the seventh to strand a pair.
Norwood sophomore Mike Goodwin made his first varsity appearance and showed good bite to his curveball, overcoming nerves in the eighth to strand the bases loaded and working a perfect ninth with a pair of strikeouts.
In the game against Natick on May 7, the Mustangs protested the contest in the fourth inning for the use of an illegal bat. Only wooden bats are allowed for use in Bay State Conference games.
“We put on a protest in the fourth inning — third inning questioned it, fourth inning put an official protest on — (for) using a composite bat, so we filed an appeal,” said Fruci. “What had happened was that bat was actually questioned on a couple of other games but nobody put a protest in it and we put a protest in because it was already questioned in a couple of games and I think they felt that it was worth it to play the game over.”
Fruci was not exactly sure who made the decision on the replay, saying, “I believe it was the high school board of directors or officials.”
Despite the loss last night that put them right back on the brink of elimination, Norwood players see it as a sign.
“We need to take advantage of Sunday with Natick, we were given a second chance so we’re fortunate to be in this situation,” said junior shortstop Brian Williams. “Someone is telling us something if we’re given an extra game then obviously we need to take advantage of it.”
Should the Mustangs manage to take advantage of the replay against Natick, they would still need to defeat Needham, Dedham and BC High next week to close out the regular season.
