Pitching Not Enough to Save Norwood Post 70

Norfolk was able to score a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Norwood Legion Post 70 yesterday. It was a game, though, that did not thrill the coaching staff.

"We beat a quality team in Norwood, but it was a game that we should have taken control of earlier," Coach Bill Lagos said. "Our team chemistry allowed us to pick up this win, but we exposed more chinks in the armor tonight than we've done all year."

Norfolk made a handful of mental errors on the field, including getting picked off on three occasions.     

King Philip's Mike Capobianco put forth a brilliant pitching performance. The right hander had a glitch in the second inning, giving up two runs to Norwood on three hits and a walk, but settled down nicely. Capobianco allowed Norwood to put the bat on the ball for four hits through the first two innings, but could only manage to reach the KP athlete for two the rest of the way.

"We got another great pitching performance from Capobianco tonight, and it would have been a shame had we let this one get away," the coach said.  "We stepped up at the right time."

Trailing 2-0 through three, Norfolk was able to cut into Post 70's lead. Nick Ahearn (Xaverain Bros) blasted a triple to right centerfield to open the fourth inning and came around to score on a Matt Glass sacrifice fly to deep center. Glass would also get credited with knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.

Following a sixth inning in which Norwood had an insurance run just 90 feet away with one out, Norfolk pulled itself together and rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning for the victory.

"In the sixth, we showed another chink in the armor, and at that point could have just given up, but we didn't," Lagos said. Instead we showed heart in the seventh with two outs. Everyone had a job to do; we had mistakes and still managed to get the win."

Unfortunately, there has to be a losing pitcher. In this situation it was Norwood's Cathrant, for whom Lagos had nothing but praise.

"Again, Norwood is a quality club and they pitched a hell of a game," Lagos said. "That kid kept us off balance all night."