The Norwood 14-year-old all-star baseball team experienced both the highs and lows of national tournament competition during their opening games at the Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series hosted at Adams Field in Quincy. Managed by Gerry Ryle, the Eastern Massachusetts champion squad opened tournament play with a decisive 6-1 victory over in-state rival Pittsfield, effectively capturing a de facto state title before running into a buzzsaw against the Mid-Atlantic champion squad from Reddington, New Jersey.
Norwood 6, Pittsfield 1
In the opening victory over Pittsfield, Norwood jumped out to an early four-run cushion in the first inning and never looked back, backed by a stellar, two-way performance from pitcher Corey Sennott. Not only did Sennott stifle the Pittsfield lineup by allowing just three hits on the mound, but he also went 3-for-3 at the plate and scored two runs.
Norwood set the tone immediately in the opening frame with RBI hits from Jesse Shaugnessy, Kevin Kuietauskas, and Tim Norton. Later in the game, Joe Trehorn drove in Sennott on a groundout, and Sparky Crossen plated Shaugnessy with a suicide squeeze. While Pittsfield finally broke through with a run in the fourth inning on a single by Nic Kemansky, Sennott and the Norwood defense cruised to the 6-1 win. Despite the celebratory start, Manager Ryle maintained a grounded perspective: “Don’t get me wrong, I think we can play these guys… We won a nice game tonight, but we’ll put this in the bag and move on from here. I’m very impressed with the teams here in Quincy.”
Reddington, N.J. 6, Norwood 0
Momentum proved difficult to sustain the following day as Norwood ran into dominant right-hander Derek Kline of Reddington, New Jersey. Kline handcuffed Norwood’s bats on a four-hit, complete-game shutout to secure a 6-0 victory for the Renegades.
New Jersey seized control immediately in the top of the first inning, plating five runs fueled by a leadoff single from Jared Dellelo, a walk to Michael Thompson, an error, and RBI singles by Jared Hammer, Evan DeLuca, and Kline himself. Norwood starting pitcher Foley settled down after the rocky opening frame and Kevin Kuietauskas provided solid relief work in the fifth, but Kline remained untouchable.
“When you give up that five-spot in the first inning, in this type of tournament, that’s a real big hole to dig yourself out,” Ryle reflected after the loss. “Going against the best players in the country, something like that is painful when it happens… We’re not down and we’re not out. We’re going to bounce back and come out fighting.” Norwood looked to rebound quickly in their next matchup against the Pacific Southwest representatives. (Reporting by Jay N. Miller, The Patriot Ledger).
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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