When the Norwood baseball team played a talented Gainesville squad in mid-September, the Pirates needed four runs in their final at-bat to pull away for an 8-6 win.
Unfortunately in the rematch in the first round of the Summit Conference Tournament, Norwood was unable to get a late rally as they lost the contest, 6-5.
The defeat ended their fall season with a 5-4-1 record.
Against the Bulldogs, Norwood trailed 3-1 entering the top of the fourth inning before they tied the game with two runs.
Gainesville responded with two runs in the bottom half of the frame.
The Pirates would tie the game at 5-5 in their next at-bat before the Bulldogs scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a solo home run to centerfield.
Toby Cottengim led the Norwood offense with three hits and three RBIs while Dylan Calhoun drew three walks and had two runs scored.
Noah Drake drew three walks and scored one run; and both Jacob Sinning and Brayden Wehrer scored one run.
Garrett Davault picked up the loss on the mound after tossing six innings and allowed five earned runs on 10 hits with six strikeouts. He issued just one walk.
In the final regular season game, the Pirates had a rare 3-3 tie in the match-up with Conway due to weather.
Norwood led 3-1 through six innings before the Bears plated two runs in the top of the seventh inning.
The game went into extra innings before being called due to the weather.
The Pirates’ offense only had four hits in the tie. Cooper Vaughan, Drake and Davault each scored one run. As a team, Norwood’s hitters struck out 11 times.
Davault lased two and a third innings on the mound and shut out the Bears.
He gave up two hits and had four strikeouts. Sinning tossed five innings and allowed one earned run on five hits with six strikeouts.
