SIDNEY – The Norwich Pony League team successfully secured a trip to the finals in their post season play when they traveled to Sidney on Saturday, July 16, to narrowly edge Cobleskill for a 2-1 win.
“We have done nothing but dominate teams, then we come out and grind out a 2-1 win,” said Norwich head coach Nick McCullough. “We can beat any team and we do whatever we can to get the win.”
Norwich would see the early lead over Cobleskill when they sent a runner in in just the first inning to earn the 1-0 lead.
“It looked like one of those games where we could snag three or four runs on them. But their pitcher settled down, and shut us down for pretty much the rest of the game. By far the toughest competition we've faced all season. It was a well fought battle on both sides,” said coach McCullough.
The early lead would slip away late from Norwich as Mike Trevisani, pitcher for Norwich, would allow a late tying run for Cobleskill in the top of the sixth inning.
“It seemed like it was going to be a 1-0 nothing win for us, but they put together good at bats against Trevisani, which not a lot of teams have been able to do. But you know it's playoff baseball, anything can happen,” said coach McCullough.
Despite being outhit by Cobleskilll – seven hits to Norwich's four – Norwich would capitalized heavily on their opportunities. When faced with adversity at a tied 1-1 game and their undefeated season hanging in the balance, Norwich saw their batters come through for them.
“After they tied the game in the top of the sixth, the guys didn’t give up. We had the best part of the lineup all year – Eli (Rodriguez) got walked, then Eli got to second on a balk, (Mike) Trevisani bunted Eli to third, and then Marcus (Cashman) hit a bloop over the third baseman's head,” explained coach McCullough. “I should've sent Eli and had him tag up on Marcus's hit, but I got caught in the moment, and Eli got caught on third.”
Coach McCullough continued explaining that due to his coaching error, he was saved on the day when their team leader in RBI's on the season, JT Vinal stepped to the plate.
He smoked the ball to center field past the second baseman. JT saved me from the bad call on Eli,” said coach McCullough. “You knew the game was over after Eli scored the run, you just knew that Trevisani would settle down and get the last three outs for the win.”
