Kirby, Norchester shut out Boytertown
Kirby, Schnell ease Norchester by Bears
COLEBROOKDALE >> Losing out on the spring baseball season didn’t inflict the same level of finality on Aaron Kirby.
He has two more years of eligibility at Owen J. Roberts. That did not, however, leave Kirby feeling any less sense of loss over the COVID-19 pandemic wiping out high-school sports this past spring.
“Missing the first season was a bummer,” he said Tuesday. “We played Oley in a scrimmage and did well. We were looking forward to the season, then the pandemic hit. I worked hard to come back better.”
The rebirth of Kirby’s baseball fortunes showed in a big way. He helped lead Norchester to a 7-0 victory over Boyertown in their Berks County Independent League game at Lee Mecherly Field, his bat and glove a formidable 1-2 punch for the Bulldogs.
Kirby was 3-for-4, driving home one of Norchester’s four first-inning runs. In center field, he made several determined putouts to back the seven-hit shutout pitching of Jack Schnell, who went the distance on the mound for the undermanned ‘Dogs.
“He stole a couple from them,” first-year manager Alex Condello said of Kirby. “We played great defense as a whole. It’s always nice to have a clean game.”
His play underscored Norchester’s overall solid performance: Error-free defense, timely pitching and an 11-hit offense that put up a pair of insurance runs in the fourth before striking one final time in the sixth.
“I told the guys afterward this was their first complete game,” Condello said. “It takes time. They were rusty, but they scored early and took the pressure off (Schnell).
“This was game 11 for us,” he added. “We have four more this week. We’re always open to play any game we can get.”
The closest the Bears (4-3-2) came to denting Schnell was getting runners to third three times. Each time, the Norchester defense closed out the frame by making the routine outs — one in particular second baseman Ethan Sabatino’s snare of a liner by the Bears’ Tyler Sharayko in the second.
Like the Bulldogs, the Bears will be closing out their abbreviated season on the diamond in the round-robin tournament finale this weekend. It was a season of transition for Boyertown, Justin Konnick taking over from outgoing manager Rick Moatz in the 2021 season.
“Obviously, this is not the transition I expected,” Konnick said.
Norchester bunched four of its hits into the high-production first, the biggest Cameron Brasheare’s two-run double to right-center field that drove in Sabatino and Kirby. Sabatino’s single to left plated leadoff batter Sam Cerimele (single) before Austin Boaman (walk) was scored by Kirby.
In the fourth, Sam Morris and Sabatino singled home Mario Billetta and Cerimele, respectively. The capper was Cerimele reaching base in the sixth off an error that afforded Nick Wood the opportunity to score.
“We’d like to keep this up, riding that,” Kirby noted.
Max Knittle, going 2-for-2, was Boyertown’s lone multiplehit performer. Tyler Sharayko, starting on the mound for the Bears, was touched for eight of Norchester’s hits and its first six runs before Tony Xanthopoulos finished up with threehit relief over the final two.
“It’s sad this has to end,” Konnick said. “The whole thing was to get the kids out on the field. They got to come out and play baseball.”
NOTES » Four Norchester players reached base after being hit by pitches. Cerimele and Austin
Boaman both scored after being plunked . ... The Bears and Bulldogs will have a rematch on the first day of the roundrobin competition, facing off 6 p.m. Friday at Mecherly Field. ... Norchester’s other roundrobin games will be noon Saturday at West Lawn and Sunday at Daniel Boone, time to be announced . ... Boyertown will host Twin Valley in Saturday’s round-robin action at either 11 a.m. or noon.