Baseball in April can be an adventure for New Englanders, just ask the Norwood High baseball team as they survived a strong swirling wind at Peter Wall Field Thursday afternoon to defeat Foxborough, 14-8.
“A lot of fly balls that would have been outs on most days…tough day to pitch,” commented Foxborough head coach Billy Sittig.
There is an exception to that rule and the exception was Norwood’s Sean O’Neil.
Find out what's happening in Foxboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
O’Neil pitched six strong innings of relief for the Mustangs, giving up only two runs while fanning five Warriors in helping Norwood come from behind for the second win in a row.
“It wasn’t how we draw it up in the first couple of innings,” said Norwood skipper James Sweeney.
Find out what's happening in Foxboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Norwood fell behind 0-2 in the first and then again in the top of the second, for the 6-2 Foxborough lead - when Norwood’s starting pitcher Sam Anderson had difficulty finding the strike zone.
Norwood tied it up in the bottom of the second on some timely hits and the rest was left up to O’Neil (2-4 at the plate) who shut down the Warriors the rest of the way.
“We called on him (O’Neil), I told him to be ready in the middle of the inning. He kind of got thrown in the fire, but he is a captain. I knew he could handle it,” said Sweeney.
“I was just focused on throwing strikes and letting the defense play behind me,” said O’Neil following the win.
O’Neil, who squashed the Warriors rally in the second inning with two strikeouts, started off slowly by walking the first batters he faced and allowing a two-run single to Foxborough.
“Once he (O’Neil) got in a groove and we got some hits then the game started to turn our way,” said Sweeney.
The Mustangs also utilized their team speed by stealing four bases and advancing on several passed balls on the Warriors defense.
“We tried to put some pressure on them defensively and to put runners in scoring position and it worked out and we were able to knock in some runs,” added Sweeney.
As a team the Mustangs had fifteen hits to go along with thirteen yesterday in their come from behind win against Milton, 7-4.
“We put a bunch of hits together, we’ve been hitting the ball,” said a pleased Sweeney.
Foxborough’s Sittig was pleased with his team’s effort, especially starting pitcher Brandon Gould who used his breaking ball to force several pop-ups in the early innings.
“Our guys pitched well, just not a great day to pitch,” said Sittig. “We didn’t make enough plays in the field to beat a team like this.”
