Norchester rallies late to down Spring City
BUCKTOWN» RickHarrison has amessage for anyone who thought Norchester’s American Legion baseball game with Spring City was over before the final out was recorded.
It wasn’t even “I told you so,” although that would have been appropriate — given how the Bulldogs rallied for a 6-5 win over the Red Sox in their Berks Invitational Tournament pairing at Owen J. Roberts High School.
“That’s why you play the game,” Harrison said after watching his club rebound from a 5-1 deficitwith a fiverun sixth inning. “That’s why I think it’s the greatest game, too. You’re in it until the final out.
“If you persevere, you can make things happen.”
There was no shortage of perseverance on Norchester’s part, even when the Sox scored twice in their half of the sixth. The ‘Dogs responded with a bat-around in which they waited out three walks, thwarted a doubleplay attempt and benefited from a wild pitch to go along with one error — that in complement to singles by Andrew Fisher and Nate Cummins, the first getting the roll started and the second good for the game-winning RBI.
It certainly stoked BenHakun’s energies. Hakun, coming on in relief of starter Dawson Stuart in the sixth, pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, closing out with a pair of strikeouts.
“You’re always kind of down when you get behind like that,” he said. “But we’ve been in that situation before. I have confidence in my guys.”
Spring City had gotten a solid pitching effort from Nick Brauer in the early going. Brauer had a two-hitter going with three strikeouts to his credit, and the Sox supported his efforts by scoring twice in the fifth to break open a 1-1 tie before padding their lead in the sixth.
But Norchester finally got to him, walks to Austin Levengood, Josh Fulmer and Andy Blum moving Fisher (single) around for a run. Brian Siket, Leif Wergeland, Ryan Cusic and Cummins produced runs after that to change the game’s complexion.
“We were passive at the beginning. Their pitcher threw a great game, and he was getting into a lot of pitcher counts,” Harrison noted. “But as the game progressed, we were able to get into better counts.”
The Bulldogs kept their late roll alive when Brian Siket made it to first af- ter his grounder to short erased Blum at second, with Levengood scoring on the play. Wergeland then reached base on an error while Fulmer came home, and Cusic’s grounder to short drove in Siket.
Cummins followed with a single up the middle that plated Wergeland.
“It’s a game of momentum,” Harrison said. “We needed quite a few baserunners. The kids were selective and made things happen.”
Spring City got on the board in the top of the first, Sam Barletta drawing a leadoff walk, moving up off Brad Clemens’ single and Casey Calas’ grounder to third before scoring off QuinnMcKenna’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Clemens broke up the tie game with his two-run single to left-center in the fifth, Nick Price (walk) and Chris Sparacino (safe on error) coming in. J.C. Reed’s leadoff walk in the sixth finished Stuart’s night on the mound, and Cummins came on to yield a single to Cole Webb, a walk to Sparacino and Barletta’s fielders-choice hit.
“We weren’t feeling frustration, “Hakun said. “We were confident the guys would get hits. The first couple innings, our bats were dead. But that doesn’t mean we can’t step up.”
Sunday’s final slate of Invitational games includes Norchester hosting Muhlenberg at 9 a.m., with the Red Sox taking on Muhlenberg at 11:30 p.m. The championship game will be back at Owen J. at 5 p.m.
“In a tournament like this,” Harrison said, “the kids get more experience. It’s also a good preparation for the Berks County playoffs, which will start in about a week.”
NOTES » Cummins scored Norchester’s first run off a single, followed by a Jordan Siket bunt and wild pitch. ... The Bulldogs’ offensive outburst came despite the hosts collecting just four hits. Spring City had just two more on the night.