Big Dawgz Reclaim Their Turf, Beat The Red Sox In Walk Off Fashion

The scoop - It was almost fitting that a Wizard of Oz-like weather front rolled through the hills of Bucktown during Tuesday's Twin County league junior legion championship match between Spring City and Norchester, causing a 20-minute delay. After winds and rain subsided, Norchester emerged from the fray unscathed.

The Red Sox and Big Dawgs bats thundered in the valley and combined for 25 runs on 27 hits.

The Big Dawgs rallied in the bottom of the seventh as they posted three runs. The game winner came off the bat of Matt Raymond - who roped a walk off single with the bases loaded to score Jeff Zeborowski and give the regular season champion Norchester a 13-12 win. That forced a decisive game on Wednesday, the first loss suffered by Spring City in the tournament. 

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There could be big shoes to fill when senior legion backstopper Dave Raifsnider finishes his stellar career this season. David Clay, who also wears the number 23, which Bulldogs fans have become accustomed to seeing behind the plate, is quickly sending the message that things will be all right.

Clay continued his torrid hitting, ripping three-base hits, drove in two runs and reached base a fourth time with a walk.

“They keep battling don’t they,” said Big Dawgz Manager Ken Long. “What can I say about this team, they battle to the last out and never quit? We just continued to hit the ball tonight. We won the regular season, which is great but these kids really want to win the league championship in the playoffs and now we have a chance to.”

“I just wanted to get the ball in play,” said Jeff Zeborowski. “We knew we could do it even when we were down two in our last at bat. Coach Long told us tonight to come out and attack early in the count if we saw a good pitch, we looked for that first strike all night.”

“This was a big win for us,” said catcher David Clay, who acts as a coach while he helps his staff. “It’s important to remind guys like Ryan that don’t pitch all the time to focus on strike and the batter and I will watch the runners and take care of that, Rumer really stepped up tonight.”

“That’s baseball, they really didn’t crush the ball tonight,” said Red Sox coach Matt Eckman who stood in for manager Mike Gancasz, who got ejected in Monday’s nights game against Phoenixville. “They just managed to hit the ball in the gaps all night, we did a good job today hitting the ball and played pretty well in the field, if we do that again tomorrow we will be fine.” 

Next on the Schedule: With the Norchester win, the #1 seed Big Dawgz are now 3-1 in the playoffs and the #4 seed Red Sox are at 2-1.

The championship will be won for certainty Wednesday with the first pitch slated for 6 p.m. at Owen J. Roberts High School. 

With Spring City hosting the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional, the Norchester win guaranteed a spot in the regional reguardless of the outcome on Wednesday.