Valiant Effort Comes Up Short for Milton Legion Post 114

Milton Legion Post 114 erased some of the bad memories of Norwood's Balch School Field, but unfortunately not all of them. 

Milton fell to Norwood Post 70, 4-3, in the deciding game of its first round best-of-three series on Friday night.

The decision was much different than the lopsided 12-run loss in the opening game of the series , and after two tightly played contests, head coach Pat Collins was able to walk off the field with a better feeling in the pit of his stomach this time around. 

"I'm proud of them," said Collins. "You erase (Tuesday night) and it's two really close games. I'm proud of the way they bounced back. It's a young team and it's a real good experience for them."

John Gorman singled in Sean Keady, who scored a first-inning run in all three contests, to get Norwood on the board in the bottom of the first. Josh Ellis dumped a bloop RBI single over Gorman's head at shortstop to notch it up at 1 in the top of the third, but Norwood responded with two runs of its own in the bottom of the frame. 

Gorman stung a John Arens pitch into the right field gap to plate Chris O'Brien. Brandon Davis followed that right up with a RBI single through the left side of the infield for the 3-1 advantage. 

The scoring chances were a plenty for Milton in the fifth and sixth innings, but Post 114 couldn't come up with a game-changing hit.

With runners on first and third with one out, Ellis hit into what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Ellis got in to first safely on a high pivot throw from the second baseman allowing Derek Curley to scamper in to cut the lead to 3-2. 

Norwood's Brendan Cathcart buckled down to strike out Jack Davis with the tying run on third to get out of the fifth, and after the first two runners of the sixth reached safely, Sean O'Neil induced a 6-4-3 double play, which did bring home Willie Archibald from third, and got Curley to fly out to left to keep the lead safe for Norwood. 

"We had guys on base and we were just one or two hits away," said Collins. "Give them credit they are a good baseball team."

Anthony Perriello' sacrifice fly to center field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth proved to be the game-winning run for Norwood.