NEW BERLIN – The battle of the top two teams in the Otsenango Pony League happened Thursday night. Norwich left the field in New Berlin as the lone team with a perfect record following a 9-5 win over Unadilla Valley.

With a pitching duel taking place at the start, the game was 3-2 with Norwich leading as the two teams headed into the top of the fifth inning.

Mike Hagen picked up a lead-off single to start the at-bats for Norwich in the frame. Teammate Torin Lawrence bunted the ball back to the pitcher of UV. Unable to field the ball cleanly, Lawrence reached the base paths as Hagen advanced to third.

Now with one runner in scoring position, Norwich’s Kaden Collins stepped to the plate. Seeing four straight balls, Collins walked, adding another runner on the bases. One of the four pitches went wild and Hagen was able to score for the first run of the inning.

Blaine Orlando hit a ground ball down the third baseline. With Lawrence on his way home to score, UV’s third baseman Colin Grant fired the fielded ball home and prevented the score at home. Collins and Orlando were now on second and third.

Norwich scored their second run of the frame on the next at-bat when Tyler Hagen hit another ground ball. This time to UV’s shortstop Gavin Bonczkowski. Bonczkowski attempted to throw Tyler out at first but the Norwich runner hustled down the first baseline, beating out the throw. On the play, Collins scored and Orlando advanced to third.

Another ground ball from Norwich’s Jordan Jacquette scored Orlando and placed Tyler Hagen into scoring position.

To close out the scoring in the fifth for Norwich, Nolan Dodzweit hit a fly ball to center field. Unadilla Valley’s Drew Emrich was caught the fly ball and threw it to hit cut off man to prevent more than one run to score. Tagging up on the play was Tyler Hagen, making the score 7-2.

“We were able to get guys on base,” said Norwich head coach Greg Bates. “We took advantage of that and were able to score four runs in the inning to help up extend our lead.”

Dominck Hartwell caught Josh Willis’ hit to left field, getting out of the top half of the inning.

Norwich tacked on a run in the top of the sixth and seventh to show 9-2 on the scoreboard before heading to Unadilla Valley’s final trip to the plate for the contest.

Facing two outs, Emrich walked to be the first runner on the basepaths of the frame. Cameron Osborne hit a heard ground ball to the Norwich third baseman. Osborne was safe at first as the third baseman was unable to make a play.

Emrich advanced to third on the Osborne hit, leaving 90 feet between him and scoring a run for UV.