Despite the widely divergent paths the Norwood American Legion Post 70 and Walpole Post 104 baseball teams took to arrive at their traditional July 4th contest, most would agree that the end result would by no means be a foregone conclusion.
A battered Walpole team, winners of just a pair of games heading into the game, fought tooth-and-nail with Norwood, that entered a top District 6 West in the standings. There were several lead changes in the early innings, a solid pitching effort by an untested Sam Murray, and fireworks at the plate in the name of Pat Falvey, who was a single short of the cycle for Post 104.
But Norwood eventually proved too much, putting up a crooked number in the fifth en route to a 10-6 win in front of a festive holiday crowd at Pete Wall Field.
“We hung around early and then just ran out of steam,” said Walpole coach Chris Costello. “Things aren’t going our way. We made some mistakes and this year, it seems like every time we make a mistake, the other team makes us pay.”
Norwood bookended the victory with wins over Medfield Friday and Noroflk yesterday to clinch a playoff spot at 15-5 and open up a 10-point lead in the race for the top seed in the West over Westwood and Foxboro,
Walpole, which had dropped a 7-6 decision to Franklin Friday night, recovered by sweeping Canton in a doubleheader yesterday to move to 4-11-1.
The turning point in this one was in the fourth, when Nico Rodriguez ripped a one-out triple off Walpole reliever Connor Thornton to straightaway center, scoring Jon Bigos to snap a 5-5 tie. Norwood added three runs off three hits in the next frame to salt it away.
“We didn’t come into this game looking at records,” said Norwood manager Paul Samargedlis. “We were just looking at what’s on the front of their jerseys. I don’t know if they’re just snake-bitten this year or not, but that’s a good Walpole team.”
Leadoff man Sean Keady lifted Murray’s second pitch of the game into the left field netting for a 1-0 Norwood lead. As if on queue, a quartet of fighter jets in formation, returning from a flyover in Boston, soared loudly overhead.
But Post 104 made a little noise of its own in the second, recapturing the lead, 2-1, on a Murray leadoff basehit, a Falvey RBI triple, and a sacrifice bunt from Adam Nichols that delivered Falvey. Norwood starter Chris Foley quickly quelled the uprising, however, with two of his six strikeouts on the night.
In the bottom of the second, Post 70 knotted the score at 2 with aggressive baserunning by Cory Sennott. He worked Murray for a walk, then stole second. Sennott advanced to third and later home, on consecutive ground ball outs.
Foley issued a pair of walks to start the third, giving Jon Kelley and Alex Phelan a free ride to the basepads. Joe Cabral helped them finish the trip, driving in the pair with a double to left.
Trailing 4-2, Norwood took advantage of a dip in Murray’s control. Best known for his dominant 10-0 mark last season, Murray walked four of the first five batters he faced in the third, forcing in Keady. He also suffered a wild pitch that allowed Sennott to score again and later, an RBI single by Kevin O’Sullivan that brought home the go-ahead run in Brian Williams.
“He’s had a bad arm and hasn’t pitched all year,” explained Costello. “We talked about it the other day and he said he wanted to give it one more shot down in Norwood. It was obvious from the start that he wasn’t the old Murray that we were used to. But to his credit, he still wanted the ball and he gave us as much as his body had to give. At this point in the season, that’s all we could ask for.”
Walpole drew even in the fourth on Falvey’s blast over the left field netting but Foley refused to let it rattle him. Proof positive was the next inning, after Norwood had assumed a 6-5 lead, when he pitched out of a one-out, bases-loaded situation.
“I left the ball up in the zone at times but they’re a good-hitting team,” said Foley, who celebrated his eighteenth birthday with the win. “I tried to work it low and got out of some key jams. I think the fastball was my best pitch tonight.”
Norwood hitters added insurance in the fifth. Williams doubled to leadoff and scored the eventual game-winner on O’Sullivan’s sacrifice bunt. Consecutive run-scoring hits by Pat Hickey and Bigos cemented the win.
“We did some things well but we also had some things handed to us,” said Samargedlis. “Overall, I like where we are right now. We have three left and I think if we can win them all, we can lock up first. We’re just trying to play good baseball right now, one game at a time.”
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Norwood officially clinched its postseason berth with yesterday’s 4-3 win over Norfolk, Kevin Kueitauskas picked up the win with four solid innings of work on the mound while Nico Rodriguez drove in the winning run with a single in the fifth. Brandon Davis pitched 2 1/3 scoreless frames for the save.
Williams went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and Jesse Shaughnessy homered in Friday’s 11-3 win over Medfield. Pat Cavanaugh pitched three scoreless inning of relief for the win.
Walpole pulled out a pair of one-run win to sweep yesterday’s doubleheader with Canton. Joe Cabral won his first start of the year in the first game, while Dave Conroy had a big two-run single and Jimmy Adams plated the game-winner with an RBI single for a 5-4 win. Eric Fallon shut down Canton in the second game and Steve King plated the winning run in the final frame of the 2-1 victory.
