Improvement Leads To Success For Norton 9B Baseball This Summer

At the 9-year-old level in baseball, the main goals are to teach the players the game and have them work on honing their skills. Ideally, you are looking for constant improvement from the players as the season progresses.

And if during that time you can win some games, that makes it all the better.

Not only was the Norton National 9-year-old all-star baseball team able to show consistent improvement this summer, but the squad was also able to put together a terrific second half to its season, including an outstanding run that took the team all the way to the championship game of the Hockomock Summer Baseball League playoffs.

“Everything really came together for the team this summer,” said Norton manager Chris O’Keefe. “The kids really came around during the second half of the season. It was very gratifying to see the improvement of the players. With all the repetitions during summer ball, the improvements are astronomical.

“The kids progressed a great deal during the course of the season. Their effort paid off. The intensity of the kids at the end of the season paid off in the games. The fact that the team got to the championship game this year was very gratifying. Everyone was thrilled with the progress of the team this year and the season ended on such a high note.”

Norton won its final three regular-season games and four of its last six to finish in a three-way tie for fourth in the Hockomock League’s Junior 9B Division at 6-6.

Mansfield won the regular-season crown with a 12-0 record, while Plainville was second at 11-1 and Easton was third at 9-3. Norton, North Attleboro and Attleboro all tied for fourth with 6-6 marks. Stoughton was seventh at 4-7-1 and Foxborough was eighth at 4-8.

The top eight teams in the division qualified for the playoffs. Norton won the tiebreaker against both North Attleboro and Attleboro to secure the fourth seed.

“At the start of the season, we were hoping to finish .500 and get into the playoffs,” said O’Keefe. “And we were able to do both of those things.”

The locals hosted North Attleboro in the quarterfinals and won 17-8, sending them to the Poncin-Hewitt Fields in Attleboro to face top-seeded Mansfield, where the team earned a hard-fought 5-4 victory to advance to the finals. Last Friday night, back at the Poncin-Hewitt Fields, the locals gave second-seeded Plainville a tough battle before falling 8-6.

Mark Morabito, Jon Chew, Michael Duross and Brian Donahue were the team’s assistant coaches. The 12-member squad consisted of Nicholas Chew, Cam Russell, Matthew O’Keefe, Nolan Tetreault, Ethan Meisner-Nelson, Sean McNichols, Jack Byrne, Brandon Morabito, Michael Duross, Max Switzer, Pat Donahue and Morgan Simmons.

The players on the team will be heading into the fourth and fifth grades next month.

“It was a very good group, who all got along great” said O’Keefe. “We had to play 22 games in 28 days. It was a very busy July, but they always showed up and worked hard.”

With victories over North Attleboro and Wrentham, Norton began the season with a 2-1 record, but dropped its next three to fall to 2-4. The locals broke the losing streak with a win over Sharon before falling to Mansfield and Plainville to drop back down to 3-6.

But Norton really turned it on after that, winning its final three regular-season games over North Attleboro (6-0), Attleboro (14-5) and Foxborough (10-2) to finish at 6-6.

“The big difference for us was during the first half, we were throwing the ball around a lot on defense,” said O’Keefe. “But in the second half the kids had better discipline and were not throwing the ball around as much. Our pitchers also did an excellent job of not walking as many batters in the second half. The pitching over the last week or two improved dramatically. Our pitching was pretty deep. We had five guys we could rely on. And once we got the whole order hitting, we really picked up our run production.”

Prior to the league playoffs, Norton competed in the King Philip Classic, reaching the finals. The locals lost to Foxborough the first day, but bounced back with two wins the next day against Sharon. On that Sunday, Norton beat Foxboro 9-6 in the division semifinals before falling to Plainville 11-10 in the championship game later that afternoon.

“The kids really started to show their colors that weekend,” said O’Keefe. “They hit well, played good defense and pitched well.”

In the quarterfinals of the league playoffs, Norton defeated fifth-seeded North Attleboro, 17-8. North Attleboro jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Norton scored in each of the next four innings to put the game away. The locals scored one run in the bottom of the second and six more in the third to take the lead for good at 7-5. Norton led 10-6 after four and put the game out of reach with a seven-run explosion in the fifth.

It would be a much tougher challenge for Norton in the semifinals as they had to face top-seeded and regular-season champion Mansfield in Attleboro.

“We were pretty confident about winning our first-round game, but going into the Mansfield game the kids were not overly optimistic,” said O’Keefe. “But their enthusiasm and confidence both grew as the game went along.”

Norton scored one run in the top of the second and one more in the fourth to hold a 2-0 lead heading onto the fifth. “Mansfield is a heavy hitting team, but it took four innings for them to get through all 12 of their batters once,” said O’Keefe, whose pitchers struck out eight batters in the game. “That was an indication of how good our pitching was.”

However, Mansfield plated four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 4-2 lead.

But the locals would not be deterred, scoring three times in the top of the sixth to re-take the lead at 5-4. Norton carried that momentum into the bottom of the inning, retiring Mansfield quickly on a fly out and a pair of strikeouts to earn the exciting victory.

“We had timely hitting and great pitching against Mansfield,” said O’Keefe. “We also had three tremendous catches in the outfield. If those catches aren’t made we don’t win that game. There was also a lot of pressure on the kids in the sixth to get three outs against a powerful hitting team, but they were able to do it in quick fashion.”

In the finals last Friday in Attleboro, second-seeded Plainville scored twice in the first to take a 2-0 lead and held a 6-0 advantage after three. Norton scored five times in the top of the fourth to get within one at 6-5, but Plainville later added two important insurance runs and came away with a hard-fought 8-6 verdict and the league’s Junior 9B Division title.

“Coming off the win against Mansfield and how well we played at the KP Tournament, we knew we could play with anyone,” said O’Keefe. “We told the kids before the game that we can play with these guys as we did in the KP Tournament. The kids went in fairly confident, but Plainville jumped on us quickly in that game.”