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1 0 THE EVENING SUN Monday, aug. 12, 1968PitchingSwillt;*InNorWl(*1 onTThe Norwich Merchants defeated Cortland 10-6 Sunday in Empire State League playoffs but they had to really scrap to win.Cortland opened the scoring in the top of the second when Mel Jones doubled and scored on an infield error by Norwich. The next three men went down in order.Norwich got the run back in their half of the third as Steve Rice and Tim Laraway both drew walks. When they tried a double steal Rice was out at third. Jim Downey went down swinging on a third strike but Mike O’Neil came through with a single to score Laraway. Dave O’Neil fouled out to end the inning.Cortland went to work on starting Norwich pitcher Bill Bradt in the fourth and tallied four runs. Joe Meldrim laced a hit to start the inning. Jones promptly followed with another hit to put runners at first and third. Hal Dewey hit a ground ball to Rice at shortstop and when Meldrim tried to score from third he was thrown out at the plate. Carl Wright was safe on a Norwich error to load the bases. Cortland centerfielder Hank Bo-rdwell then came through with a bases loaded home run over the Norwich right fielder’s head. Ostrander and Stewart both grounded out to end the inning with Cortland out in front 5-1.Cortland put the pressure on again in the top of the fifth when Steve Dewaree walked, Joe Woodruff singled him to third and when Bradt walked Meldrim to load the bases with no outs Manger Ed O’Neil decided to make a pitching change. He brought in Tim Laraway who had started the game playing third. Lara wav-proceeded to prove himself a real cool performer as he struck out the first two men to face him and when Steve Demaree tried to steal home Laraway kept his poise and threw a pitch to catcher Dave O’Neil whoput the third out tag on Demaree at the plate.Laraway’s fine clutch perfor*NORWICH first baseman Dave in fourth inning. He did a attempting to head off bunt.Petley throws from his knee split when he slipped while Runner was safe at first,(Sun Staff Photo)mance seemed to inspire the Merchants as they went after Cortland pitcher Jim Stewart for a total of six runs in their half of the fifth. Pitcher Stewart had held Norwich to two hits when he faced them earlier this season. Rice drew a walk and Laraway followed with a single upthe middle to put runners at first and third.Downey looped a hit to left scoring Rice with Laraway moving to third. O’Neil singled Laraway home and moved Downey to third. Dave O’Neil drew a walk to load the bases. Stewart grounded to the shortstop who threw home to get the force out on Downey. Larry Abbott drove home two runs with a single to center and when the ball was mis-played Stewart also scored on the play. Dave Petley flied out but Bradt drove in Abbott with the sixth run of the inning. The score at this point was Norwich 7 and Cortland 5.Cortland pulled up to within onerun in the top of the seventh as Demaree walked, stole .second and scored on a Norwich infield error. Norwich got the next three batters out in order and this proved to be the last scoring punch for Cortland for the afternoon as Laraway continued his fine pitching performance.The Merchants tucked the gameaway with three more runs intheir half of the seventh off Cortland relief pitcher, Mel Jones.Abbott walked, Petley singled and Bradt walked to load the bases. Abbott was forced at home trying to score on a grounder to short and Cortland completed a double play when they got the batter at first base.The teams will meet again next Sunday at Cortland in the second game of this best of three games play-ofl.Cortland010400100 653Norwich00106030- 10 93
Newspaper Details
Norwich Evening Sun
Norwich, New York, US
Mon, Aug 12, 1968
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Patricia R.
NY, USA 09 Sep 2021
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