BRAINTREE — With every team sitting just one loss away from elimination in the American Legion state baseball tournament, Norwood proved it fully deserved to advance by securing an 8-4 victory over Brockton yesterday.
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Following a tough 6-5 opening loss to Amherst on Saturday—marred by a dismal six defensive errors—Norwood bounced back in style at Braintree High School, putting on a stellar 13-hit performance backed by flawless, error-free defense. “We had no errors today,” Norwood coach Pete Wall remarked proudly. “Our six errors (Saturday) killed us. We did a good job defensively.” With the win, Norwood advanced to face Amherst again tonight at 7:00 p.m., following Amherst’s 6-5 loss to Fall River. Confident in his squad’s momentum, Coach Wall added, “I don’t care who we face next. It’s going to take a heck of a team to beat us.”
Norwood third baseman Tim Coyle—who is set to attend Boston College in the fall—served as the team’s primary offensive catalyst, turning in a stellar 4-for-5 day at the plate featuring a walk, two singles, a double, three runs scored, and two RBIs. “I was hitting well in practice,” Coyle said. “I’d been slow in coming around with the bat, but I was better today.” Norwood ignited its scoring surge in the bottom of the second inning when Jeff Putnam launched a solo home run over the left-field fence. Bill Jacobs followed with an infield single, Jim Generajo and Tim Coyle drew walks, and Mike McMahon singled home Jacobs. With one out, Steve Cloherty cracked a two-run single plating Generajo and Coyle to build a commanding 4-0 lead.
Brockton struggled to generate offense early against Norwood’s pitching, managing only a single hit through the first three innings before Chris Hall tripled, though he was later doubled off on a popout. Brockton starter Fred Conley ran into heavy trouble in the third, surrendering a two-run single to Coyle before being relieved by Chris Worthey. Coyle subsequently scored on an RBI single by Scott Ivens, pushing the lead to 7-0. Coyle struck again in the fifth with a leadoff double, coming home on another single by Ivens to notch Norwood’s final run of the game.
Norwood experienced its own brief pitching and control struggles in the top of the fifth when Mike McMahon lost the strike zone, walking in two runs before being replaced by Jeff Mahoney. After Mahoney walked in a third run to a single batter, Scott Ivens took over the mound, calmly extinguishing the threat and shutting down Brockton for the remainder of the contest. Brockton’s Chris Hall (2-for-4) briefly energized his team with a home run over the left-center field fence in the eighth inning to make it 8-4, but the late rally proved insufficient, eliminating Brockton from the tournament. Reflecting on the hard-fought run, Brockton coach Matt Thompson noted, “We have nothing to hang our heads about.”
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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