NORWICH - After many rainouts, the Norwich Purple Tornado baseball team finally played their 2024 home opener against rival, Oneonta.

Norwich, coming off a close win to Sus Valley, fell 11-3 to the Yellow Jackets. Norwich will face Oneonta two more times in a row to complete a three-game series.

Oneonta opened the first inning with a run before adding on three more in the second inning. Norwich finally answered back in the bottom of the fourth innng with two runs of their own to cut the lead in half 4-2. Jackson Francis singled to lead-off the inning and Collin Olds reached on an error. Jackson Sastri came up to the plate with one out and hit an infield single that turned into a scoring play for Jackson Francis, who scored off an error. Norwich kept it going with two outs as another run came home during Carmine Pastore's at-bat. Zack Parker singled to load the bases and Pastore drew a walk to send Olds home. Pastore drew four walks on the day.

Oneonta added two runs in the fifth, three in the sixth, and two final runs in the seventh to add on to their lead. Norwich got one final run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Olds walked to start the inning before Kaden Downey reached on a hard ball to shortstop that was misplayed. Pastore, who drew another walk, went to second and third during Downey's at-bat and scored on Zac Turner's ground-out RBI.