District baseball: Norwayne slams Black River

SULLIVAN — Norwayne had a grand old time in its Division V baseball sectional final at Black River on Friday. The 15th-seeded Bobcats cranked out four home runs, two of them coming with the bases loaded in a 24-4 win, improving to 10-16 and now will face the Berkshire/Ravenna Southeast winner next week. The seventh-seeded Pirates finished the season at 16-8 as outright champions in the Lorain County League after a thrilling 4-3 win at Brookside last week. "We had seven one-run victories and a number of come-from-behind wins," Black River coach Jake O'Connor said about the successful season his Pirates had this year. "The boys showed a lot of mental toughness this year and this certainly wasn't what we envisioned when we came to play today." Norwayne put the Pirates in a deep hole right out of the gate as the first five batters all reached and scored, starting with Cade Leach who doubled to deep center and eventually scored on a passed ball. Chaz Maxwell reached on a fielder's choice after a sacrifice bunt, Dan Steingass was hit by a pitch and Hayden Klepper walked to load the bases for Grady Cotton, who hit the ball exactly 329 feet as it hit the top of the fence just above the distance sign on the left-center field fence for a 5-0 Bobcats lead. "Grady (4-for-5, two doubles, two home runs, seven RBIs) has had a lot of bad luck this year hitting deep fly balls just short of the fence and hard-hit balls right at people," Norwayne coach Joe Gilmore said. "It was great to see him get that home run and give us a big lead right away." After surrendering another run to Norwayne in the second, the Pirates showed life at the plate, cutting the lead in half with three runs in the bottom of the second. After a Jayce Hopek walk to start the inning, sophomore Carson Steidl fouled off a couple pitches before hammering a ball deep to right field for a two-run homer. Senior Trent Boggs followed the home run with a double to right-center, then went to third on a wild pitch and came home when a balk was called on Bobcats starter Hayden Klepper, who went the distance for the win. After the offensive outburst, the Pirates needed a shutdown inning, but it never came about as the Bobcats sent 11 batters to the plate in the third, scoring seven runs on just four hits off Black River starter Dom Bell and reliever Zane Kristophel. The big blow of the inning came off the bat of Maxwell, who greeted Kristophel with the second grand slam for Norwayne in the first three innings as the Bobcats lead ballooned to 13-3 going to the bottom of the inning. The Pirates continued to show fight in their half of the third as Bell flared a single down the right field line to start the inning. Hunter Mate walked and Josh Stuart singled home Bell for the first run of the inning. After a strikeout, Steidl hit a sharp ball up the middle that glanced off Klepper's glove to the shortstop to start an unlucky 1-6-3 double play to end the scoring threat. Senior Dozier Hendershot was the only other Pirates player to get into scoring position with a one-out single in the fourth, getting to third following a ground out and a stolen base but was stranded there after an inning-ending fielder's choice. "There were several juniors and seniors who didn't have a lot of varsity experience coming into this year and I'm just so proud of the way they played and worked all year long after not being as successful last year," O'Connor said. "We're leaving here with our heads held high knowing that we are a conference winning team." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.