Milton Legion Post 114 Drops Opening Tournament Game

Milton Legion Post 114 got off on the wrong foot in the opening game of the tournament with a lopsided 14-2 loss to Norwood Post 70 last night at Balch School.

Norwood pounded out 18 hits en route to a 1-0 lead in the best-two-out-of-three opening round series.

Sean Keady went 3-for-4 scored four runs and reached all five times he went to the plate (walk, reached on error) and John Gorman went 4-for-5 with two RBI in the win. Sean O’Neill struck out 10 in a complete-game, five-hitter to quiet the Milton bats.

“We have to just try and forget tonight,” said Milton head coach Pat Collins, whose team will look to stave off elimination on Wednesday at Cunningham Field at 5 p.m. “I know that we are better than that. They know that we are better than that.”

Norwood pounded the ball early and often as it sent 12 men to the plate and scored six runs in the process off of starter Rob O’Neil. O’Neil, who is headed to the University of Massachusetts in the fall, only recorded one out and struggled to find his release point in the home half of the first.

The speedy Keady led off with a triple and Chris O’Brien singled him home. Gorman followed that up with a rocket to center to plate O’Brien. P.J. King hit a two-run double to left field with the bases loaded and Keady walked with the bases loaded to get on base for the second time in the first.

Jack Davis pulled a grounder by the second baseman and an overthrow from the right fielder trying to nab Tyler Starks going to third was over shot, and Starks scampered in to cut the deficit to 6-1.

Milton needed four pitchers to get through the game and Norwood teed off on Milton relief pitching in the bottom of the fifth. Norwood collected five straight hits and stretched the lead to 12-1 through five.

Willie Archibald will get the ball on Wednesday night in game two of the series to keep Milton’s hopes of reaching the championship alive.