The Norwood Babe Ruth 14-year-old All-Star team compiled one of its most complete efforts of the summer, mixing great pitching with solid defense and terrific hitting to stymie a game Newton team in the losers bracket of the EMass State Babe Ruth Tournament.
Pat Foley pitched all five innings, allowing just three hits while striking out three, and Tyler Gover went 3-for-4 with five RBI while making a couple of fantastic plays at shortstop to lead Norwood to an 11-1 mercy-rule shortened victory over Newton last night at Peter Wall Field.
Norwood advances to play Weymouth tonight at 8 p.m. in another elimination game. Saugus and Plymouth, the last two unbeatens, will square off in the winners bracket final at 5:30.
“When we play solid defense and pitch well we win because Norwood always hits fastballs,” said Norwood manager Kevin Igoe. “We don’t want to see a junkballer. You throw a fastball guy at us, we'll crush it. We played great defense and pitched well, and I'm happy for the guys because they've been working hard.”
After each team pushed across a run in the first inning, the Norwood bats went to work in the second with a lift from the bottom of the order. Aaron Drummey got things started with a double to the fence in right field and moved to third on a wild pitch. Mark Maggio walked and Foley legged out an infield single to load the bases. No. 9 hitter Ryan Greeley stroked a two-run single over second base to score both Drummey and Maggio.
The ever-dangerous top of the Norwood lineup kept the momentum going with a walk by Jordan Davis and an RBI single from Ryan Igoe to keep the bases loaded. Gover delivered the biggest blow, ripping a three-run double to the fence in left to give Norwood a 7-1 lead.
Norwood tacked on another run in the third as Maggio (leadoff walk) was able to score from third on an infield grounder by Davis. The game ended in the fifth, when Sam Anderson came through with a two-run single to reach the 10-run mercy rule.
Meanwhile, Foley was able to keep the Newton off balance using a devastating curveball to set up his fastball. After allowing the lone run in the first, Foley didn’t allow a Newton batter to get past first base the rest of the game, thanks to a little defensive help.
“The Foley curveball has been in Norwood for a while,” Igoe said. “They learn from their Dad that 12-to-6 curveball. He was a warrior tonight. He took a ball off his shin, jumped right up and said he was fine. He's a warrior, a great teammate and we're proud of him. He's always solid and we played good defense behind him.”
Third baseman Joe Erker made a nice stab of a wicked line drive off the bat of Newton’s Daniel Swain in the third, while Anderson made a pair of nice plays at first in the fourth. First, he snared a wide throw from Gover after a terrific play at short and scrambled to the bag in time to get Danny Wanger, and then he made a nice catch on a foul pop while falling down to get the second out. Foley ended the fourth with a nice play of his own, knocking down a hot line shot up the middle and throwing to first for the final out.
In the fifth, Gover got to a slow roller toward short, fired to second where Maggio made a nice turn to throw on to first for a pretty double play.
“Maggio's been solid at second base and he really stepped it for us,” Igoe said. “Our middle is really strong with Maggio, Gover and (Ryan) Igoe. We’ve got Davis behind the plate who has never even played catcher until this summer and he's really stepped up big for us.”
Davis finished with two hits and three runs scored, Anderson had two hits and two RBI, and Maggio walked twice and scored both times for Norwood.
Swain scored Newton’s lone run, leading off the game with a walk, a stolen base, and scoring on a groundout by Hector Coscione.
“I'm very proud of my guys. For the second year in a row, we were the best team in our district,” Newton manager Jonathan Merin said. “Newton is a little different than some of these other towns. Our league is still going and it’s harder for us. Some of these teams are just really good. This is a terrific Norwood team we played, we played a great Plymouth team, and we saw a great Saugus team. It's going to be a great war between all the teams still alive.”
