Norwood American Legion Baseball Team Advances to State Tournament-August 6, 1986

Sweeps Lawrence 11-2

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After winning easily the previous night, the Norwood American Legion baseball team showed just how explosive its lineup could be. Last night, “dominant” quickly replaced “powerful” as Norwood returned home to Balch Field and completed a sweep of its best-of-three Eastern sectional final by defeating Lawrence 11-2, following an 8-1 victory on Monday. The decisive win propelled the 28-1 Norwood squad directly to the state tournament in New Bedford starting Saturday night. Mike Wall led the offensive charge with a flawless 4-for-4 night at the plate, while Derrick Ghostlaw drove in four runs as Norwood racked up 12 total hits. Reflecting on the performance, Coach Pete Wall stated, “We knew we were capable of exploding like this. I didn’t want to go back to Lawrence and play a third game like we did last year.”

Lawrence briefly grabbed an early advantage in the first inning when George Evangelista singled, advanced on an error, and scored on a second misplay off a grounder by Dave Lavallee. However, Norwood immediately answered in the bottom half: Kevin Igoe reached on an error, stole second, and scored on an RBI single by Mike Wall, who subsequently crossed the plate on a passed ball. Although Lawrence tied the game 2-2 in the third inning when Bill Blackwell singled home George Evangelista, that marked the closest the visitors would get. Norwood reclaimed the lead for good in the bottom of the third when Bob Goonan, Mike Wall, and Mike Generazo loaded the bases with consecutive singles, allowing Dan O’Rourke and Derrick Ghostlaw to drive in runs via sacrifice flies.

Norwood pulled away permanently with a three-run fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Derrick Ghostlaw and an error that plated an additional run. Mike Wall added an RBI double in the sixth, and Norwood sealed the blowout with three more runs in the eighth behind an RBI single from Mike Generazo and Derrick Ghostlaw‘s fourth RBI of the evening. On the mound, starting pitcher Scott Generazo shook off early trouble to shut down Lawrence after the third inning, scattering four hits over 5.1 dominant frames before Bob Goonan entered in relief to close out the victory.

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