Frank Speziale Photo


NORWICH – The Norwich Pony League team recorded their tenth consecutive win on the season when they hosted The Oneonta Rough Riders on July 14, winning 6-2.
Norwich would see an early two run lead swing their way in the bottom of the first inning. However, Oneonta would battle back to tie the game in the top of the third, as they recorded a run in the second and third innings.
“We got ahead a bit early, we just shut them down in the first inning and got two runs across for us,” said Norwich head coach Nick McCullough. “Oneonta is good team, this is what playoff baseball is going to be like. They stayed in the game, we were all tied up in the third.”
After the brief tie in the top of the third, Norwich would break the silence when they exploded for a two run bottom of the third, for a lead at 4-2.
Pitching for Norwich was Marcus Cashman. Cashman threw the entire seven innings, recording an astounding 13 strikeouts, while only surrendering one earned run, four hits, and four walks.
“Marcus (Cashman) hasn’t pitched in two and half weeks so his command was a little off, and I think the heat wasn’t helping either,” said coach McCullough. “Marcus gets stronger inning by inning, he always seem to start a little slow and then he settles in. Marcus was definitely player of the game, for a guy who hasn’t pitched in just over two and half weeks, to pitch seven innings and only allowing four hits and striking out 14 is great. He kept us in the game.”
Norwich would take the 4-2 lead over Oneonta and add some insurance runs onto the total in the fourth inning when they sent home an additional two runs, making the score 6-2.
Oneonta saw the likes of two pitchers, House and MacInerny, House would see three and two thirds of an inning on the mound, recording four strikeouts, while walking six, before House would come in in relief to close out the game. House tacked on an additional three strikeouts, while adding no more walks.
“Their pitchers threw hard and threw strikes, and our pitchers threw hard and threw strikes. This is exactly what playoff baseball is, it was fun. The fans were there, the kids had fun,” said coach McCullough. “We only had three hits, but just weren’t throwing us strikes early. The pitcher (MacInerny) left in the fourth because he threw over 70 pitches. He is a very good pitcher but we worked the count on him. We didn’t get a lot of hits, but the ones we did we took advantage of them.”
Norwich batters: Tyler Hagen 0-2 with a run, Eli Rodriguez 1-3 with a run, Mike Trevisani 0-3 with two runs, Marcus Cashman 0-2 with a run, JT Vinal 1-3 with a run and three RBI's, Josh Willis 1-3 with an RBI, AJ Little 0-2 , Cameron Birtch 0-2, Troy Flanning 0-1, and Drew Walsh 0-3.
Coach McCullough added on that errors contributed to the win, as Norwich would take full advantage of the five errors committed by Oneonta.
With the 6-2 win, and officially recording their tenth win on the season, Norwich will now advance to the semi-finals of the Pony League tournament. Due postponements, Cherry Valley and Cobleskill 1 will face off later on today at 5:30 p.m., with the winner heading to Sidney to take on Norwich at 12 p.m. on Saturday, July 16.
Baseball is a funny game, no matter who we play were going to be ready for them. In my opinion I think we have the best team, and I know for a fact that we have the best pitcher in all of the league and they’re going to get Mike Trevisani on Saturday,” said coach McCullough. “Whoever were playing should be worried, hes a gamer and hes going to bring it all. I hope they’re gonna bring they’re bats because were gonna bring ours. Three hits is not going to happen again. Needless to say, Im really proud of these guys, they’re a great group of guys. Step one is done and we’ve got two more steps to go.”
Notably Mike Trevisani currently holds a 2016 Pony League stat-line of a 5-0 record with one save, 31 innings pitched with only one earned run allowed, a current ERA of just 0.22 with 56 strikeouts and just five walks.

N: 2 0 2 2 0 0 X– 6
O: 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 – 2