EDMESTON – Norwich was playing catch up with Oneonta the entire game. The purple-clad diamond men finally caught the Hurricanes in the bottom of the seventh.
Josh Haines slid into home safely after Cody Barnes’ sacrifice fly to center field to give Norwich a 6-5 win in the Otsenango Pony League championship game at Edmeston High School Tuesday night.
Norwich trailed 5-0 after two innings, and it appeared that its bid to repeat as league champion was in serious jeopardy. “We made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, and the pitching wasn’t on,” said Norwich coach Bill Haines. “A lot of our games we’ve been ahead, but when we were behind, the guys knew what to do to come from behind and win it.”
Oneonta did not suffer a division loss during the regular season, and after a four-run second inning was firmly in command. Josh Davi tagged Norwich’s winning pitcher, Barnes, with a lead-off double to start the uprising, one of five Oneonta hits during the inning. Josh Garufi hit a bloop RBI single to right, Mike Wolstenholme followed with a bunt single, and Wilson Wells rapped a sharp two-run single making it 4-0. Tyler Horne ended the inning with a run-scoring double.
Barnes never had a quiet inning on the mound, but also did not allow another run the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Norwich’s office finally got on track in the third.
Lead-off hitter Cameron Prime doubled, and he scored on Haines’ double to left field. Haines came in with Norwich’s second run on a passed ball. The next four innings, Norwich chipped away with single runs.
Robert Jeffrey reached in the fourth on an infield error, and he scored on Nick Mooney’s infield single. In the fifth, John Yacano walked, stole second, moved to third on Barnes’ groundout, and scored on a wild pitch. Jeremy Fitch, a mid-game substitution at second base, doubled to lead off the sixth. Two passed balls allowed Fitch to tie the game.
Norwich’s last-inning rally began when Oneonta was unable to handle Haines grounder to third. Haines stole second, and advanced to third on a groundout. Barnes, who was 0-for-3 in the game with two strikeouts, made solid contact on the first pitch ripping a line drive to center field. “I told Josh (before the last run) that anything in the air, he needed to tag up and go,” Haines said. “At that point in the game, we wanted to be aggressive. (Josh) was aggressive, and unfortunately for their catcher, the ball bounced away.”
Barnes finished with nine strikeouts to pick up the victory. He worked out of jams in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh innings aided by good defense as well his own resolve. In the fourth, Oneonta’s John Vega reached on an error and promptly stole second base. Wells lined a hard rope to left field that Haines snagged. Vega was just a step farther from second base than he wanted, and Haines fired back to the bag to double Vega off and end the inning.
One inning later, Norwich catcher John Yacano ended an Oneonta scored threat when he threw out would-be base-stealer, Chris Yearsley, at second base for the final out of the inning. Oneonta had back-to back two-out singles in the sixth, but Barnes induced a easy come-backer from Vega to end the inning.
Oneonta caught a big break in the seventh when Norwich centerfielder Robbie Wheeler’s diving catch of Wells’ sinking liner was overturned on appeal. “I think when the umpire overturned Robbie’s catch, it fired the team up, and you could see the fire in Cody’s eyes when he went back to the mound,” Haines said. “The kids didn’t want that call to take anything away from us.”
Barnes sandwiched two strikeouts around a ground out setting up Norwich’s walk-off win. “Defending the league title was a goal of ours from the beginning of the season,” Haines said, whose club finished the year 13-2. “Twelve out of the 14 kids on the team this year are aging out, and they’ll go on to play JV or varsity baseball next year. I see good things for them and good things for the coaches.”
Score by Innings R H E
Oneon. 140 000 0 5 10 3
Norw. 002 111 1 6 7 2
Cody Barnes (W) and John Yacano. Mason Montgomery, Chris Yearsley (5), Josh Davi (7) and Peter Brunetta. Doubles: (N) Cameron Prime, Josh Haines, Robert Jeffrey, Jeremy Fitch. (O) Josh Davi (2), Tyler Horne.