SOUTH PORTLAND—The Greater Northeast Collegiate Baseball League’s Norsemen squad barreled their way into this summer’s championship last Thursday, Aug. 9, besting the Windjammers 7-2 and bouncing them from the double-elimination tournament.
“We’ve played them a lot,” Norsemen head coach Chris Tilton said of the Jammers. “They got us quite a few times in the regular season. But we knew we were going to come in with a good game.”
Offensively, the early game withered on the vine: Norsemen starting pitcher Mike Doherty (Scarborough/St. Joseph’s) and Jammers starting pitcher Dennis Farnham (Orono/Lyndon State), turned in quick, scoreless innings—both found their spots, and the nimble defenses backing them up did the rest. Batters did make contact, but nobody managed to get around.
“I’m very confident in the pitching we had,” Tilton said. “Mike did a phenomenal job; he gave us a chance. We talked about it, just giving our offense a chance to put some runs up and keep us in the game. He did more than we could ask for.”
“Defensively, we’ve been really good all year,” Tilton said. “Infield, outfield. We’ve got a good, deep team.”
The Norsemen safecracked the scoreboard in the third, absconding with a huge payday: Five runs, one each by Thomas Fish (Natick, Massachusetts/St. Joe’s), Ian Westphal (Portland/Southern Maine Community College), Ben Isaak (Durham, New Hampshire/Suffolk), Mike Sterritt (Exeter, New Hampshire/Great Bay Community College) and Evan Balzano (Saco/University of Maine Orono).
Fish kicked off the stretch, reaching first on a fielder’s choice to second. Westphal followed him up, bouncing a hard single grounder over Amos Herrin’s (Wilton/SMCC) glove at third. Isaak grounded directly to short—but beat the throw; Sterritt RBI-singled just past a diving Justin Coppeta (Westbrook/Assumption) at second; Balzano RBI-singled into center; Tim Brigham (Cape Elizabeth/Suffolk) two-RBI-singled and Ben Nelson (Gorham/Merrimack) RBI-singled as well.
Phew.
“We just kind of trusted what we’ve been doing,” Tilton said. “We put runs up; a lot of the game we’ve played against them were 2-1, 1-0 games. We’ve been hot at times, and there’s been games where we’ve struggled to push a few across. But we were able to get some runs and the big hits when we needed them today.”
“It took us a time through the lineup to see [Farnham],” Tilton said, “get an idea of what he was doing, and we just stuck with it and made good swings.”
The Jammers picked up one in the bottom of the third – Ethan Daigneault (Massabesic/Husson) singled to reach and eventually crossed home on a passed ball during Brogan Searles-Belanger’s (Saco/UMO) at-bat – but it wouldn’t be enough to jumpstart any sort of comeback. The Norsemen added two more in the top of the fifth: Brigham singled a grounder into left, Nelson walked and both scored when Emery Dinsmore (Waldo/Colby) singled through the dirt and into center.
“We went in with the approach to just kind of be aggressive early,” Tilton said. “Try and put some pressure on them to make the game as easy as possible on us.”
Even the Jammers’ seventh-inning push – Tucker Banger doubled to reach and scored thanks to Daigneault – proved too little, too late. The Jammers, who entered the postseason ranked third, succumbed in the end.
The Norsemen, the No. 2 playoffs entrant, meanwhile moved on to Sunday’s Championship round, where they bested the No. 4 Nor’easters in back-to-back, nine-inning bouts to claim the League crown.
Thursday’s matchup took place at SMCC, but the League also plays at Wainwright Sports Complex in South Portland, at the Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach, at St. Joseph’s College in Standish and at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham. The GNCLB is online at www.gncbl.net, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gncblBaseball/ and on Twitter at @GNCBLBaseball.
Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME.
Michael Doherty (Scarborough/St. Joe’s) pitches for the Norsemen in their win over the Windjammers.
Justin Coppeta (Westbrook/Assumption) unwinds into a Windjammers throw toward first from second.
Windjammers second baseman Justin Coppeta (Westbrook/Assumption) throws a tag out, looking to catch a Norseman runner.
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