Norwood 14-Year-Old All-Stars Fall 3-0 to Youngstown, Ending Pool Play at Babe Ruth World Series-August 24, 2005

A gritty defensive effort and another strong outing on the mound were not enough for the Norwood 14-year-old all-star baseball team, as they dropped a tough 3-0 decision to the Ohio Valley champion squad from Youngstown, Ohio, at the Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series at Adams Field in Quincy. Following an opening-round victory over Pittsfield, Norwood suffered two consecutive losses in pool play, finishing their postseason run with an impressive 5-3 overall record after going undefeated through the Massachusetts state tournament.

Youngstown 3, Norwood 0

Norwood kept its championship hopes alive through three scoreless frames, backed by starting pitcher Corey Sennott, who allowed only three singles across four stellar innings. However, a single shaky inning in the fourth unraveled the scoreless deadlock. Youngstown broke through when Shane Wagner launched a triple to left-center field—the deepest part of Adams Field—followed by a fly ball from Cory Hill that was dropped, allowing Wagner to score the game’s opening run. Energized by the error, Youngstown capitalized further as Kevin McCulloh laced an RBI double to left to score Hill, and Ricky Segesto followed with a double to left-center to plate McCulloh, capping a three-run frame.

Youngstown’s pitching staff locked down the game from there. Starter Shawn Roman struck out seven batters and walked one over four innings before handing the ball to Nick Crum, who surrendered just two hits and struck out five—including the final two batters of the game—to preserve the three-hit shutout. Roman’s four-inning, one-hit performance marked the fourth consecutive outstanding outing by a Youngstown starting pitcher in the tournament.

Norwood mounted its best scoring threat in the bottom of the fifth. Following a pair of strikeouts, Nico Rodriguez and Brian Williams hit back-to-back singles to put runners on base. That brought up Sennott—who entered the game batting 6-for-11 in the tournament—but he struck out on a curveball, finishing his day with three strikeouts and sealing the Youngstown victory. Jesse Shaughnessy also contributed at the plate, going 1-for-3 to finish tournament play 5-for-12.

Reflecting on the narrow defeat, Norwood manager Gerry Ryle pointed to the recurring issue of a single costly inning. “Like I said yesterday, take away 12 walks [in a prior loss to Tri-Valley] and Youngstown’s big inning, and bring it down to a presentable two or three, and the next thing you know you are in the ballgame no matter who you play,” Ryle said. “Once again one bad inning cost us.”

Despite the elimination from championship contention, Norwood wrapped up a memorable tournament run representing Eastern Massachusetts on the national stage. Meanwhile, Youngstown finished pool play with a 3-1 record, locking up the American League pool’s No. 2 seed behind Tri-Valley, California, ahead of the single-elimination bracket.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger