Norwin baseball is playing with confidence and pointy elbows as the regular season stretches to a finish.
The fifth-ranked Knights have muscled their way into the Section 2-6A title race with two games remaining after a mostly one-sided 11-4 victory over No. 3 Mt. Lebanon in their series opener on Monday in North Huntingdon.
“We’re trending in the right direction,” Knights coach Craig Spisak said. “I liked how we hit the ball today with two outs. Our guys battled at the plate.”
Norwin (11-5, 7-3) has won three in a row and six of seven after getting swept by Canon-McMillan. They have pulled within a game of the first-place Big Macs.
Two more wins and Norwin can with the section outright.
“We had a lot of energy today,” said Norwin senior left fielder Derek Berger who went 2 for 2 with a double, two walks and three RBIs. “We never got down.”
Mt. Lebanon (11-5, 6-4), which saw a four-game winning streak end, led 1-0 in the first before the Knights took control and piled on.
Senior Matt O’Neil pitched five solid innings for the Knights, scattering six hits while striking out 10 for his fourth win of the season. O’Neil didn’t bat, but he had plenty of offensive help.
Senior Caden Sivrich had a two-run double, senior Zane Markovitz had two RBIs and new leadoff hitter, senior catcher Trevor Vitsas, reached base all five times, via a single, a hit-by-pitch and three walks.
Vitsas filled in for injured senior Jake Knight, who is still able to pitch and run.
Norwin has scored 10 or more runs in five of its last seven games.
“When we played Canon-Mac, we hit a rough patch,” O’Neil said. “Defensively as a team, we’ve been fielding the ball clean. I trust our guys.”
It was a long day on the mound for Mt. Lebanon, which used four pitchers and issued 10 walks, hit two batters and gave up eight hits.
Seven Norwin starters reached base at least once.
“Scoring 11 against them is big,” Spisak said. “Those guys are good. They work your pitchers. After the Canon-Mac series, we had to reload and get back to fundamentals. We’ve been playing well ever since.”
Berger got the offense started with a two-run double in the first, and a wild pitch allowed another run to make it 3-1.
It was 5-1 after the second when one run scored on a groundout and another via a wild pitch.
A two-out, bases-loaded walk in the fourth produced Norwin’s sixth run, before the Blue Devils closed the gap to 6-4 in the fifth, finally getting the bats around on O’Neil.
Freshman James Golen hit a solo homer to left and, after two straight singles, back-to-back groundouts by junior Beckett Yost and junior Cameron Mayer cut the margin to two.
O’Neil worked out of it and ended the threat with a strikeout.
Norwin responded swiftly with a four-run fifth. All four scored after there were two outs.
After two walks, senior second baseman Tristyn Tavares ripped a run-scoring single, Sivrich followed with his two-run double and Berger added an RBI single for a 10-4 lead.
“I was seeing the ball really well today,” Berger said.
After a pair of singles and two walks to load the bases in the sixth, a balk made it 11-4.
Senior Aiden Catterall pitched the last two innings, allowing two hits. An unassisted double play by Tavares ended the sixth, and three flyouts, including a diving grab by Markovitz in right, ended it for the Knights.
“We’re preparing for the playoffs with confidence,” Spisak said. “The season goes by so quick. We’re still learning about our team.”
The second game of the three-game series is Tuesday at Mt. Lebanon.
“We have some things we need to tune up,” O’Neil said. “I am really excited to see how these last two games go.”