Maloney strikes quick, then fends off late NFA charge

MERIDEN — The Spartans are on to the next round.  

No. 9 Maloney defeated No. 24 Norwich Free Academy 9-6 Tuesday in the first round of the Class LL state baseball tournament at Ceppa Field.

Starting pitcher Sean Nowicky pitched five solid innings and the lineup provided him with more than enough run support.

“I thought I did a good job of getting ahead,” Nowicky said. “I had good command of my pitches and I thought that I did a good enough job to put my team in a position to win.”

With the victory, the Spartans improved to 15-6. They’ll return to Ceppa Field on Wednesday afternoon to host No. 25 New Canaan (10-11), a 5-3 winner Tuesday over No. 8 Fairfield Prep.

Nowcky’s batterymate, Raf Rodriguez, commended the junior right-hander for his performance despite not getting much varsity-level playing time.

“He was great,” Rodriguez said. “He hasn’t been on the bump that much this year, but he performed when it mattered.”

The Spartans bats were just as efficient as Nowicky’s arm. Tyler Duffy led off with a double and scored on a single by Jesus Arraez for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

The Spartans forced Norwich pitcher Daniel St. George to throw a lot during his outing.

“We talked about getting ahead in the counts,” Maloney coach Ricky Marrero said. “We went out in the early innings and put some balls in play. We put pressure on them early and scored some runs.”

After the early run support, Nowicky continued to dominate and struck out four batters in a row at one point.

“The one thing about Sean is that he will compete and he is a difficult at-bat,” Marrero said. “He will be pitching in college. When he tries to do too much, it’s a bit of a harder effort, but today he stayed within himself and he threw the ball extremely well.”

In the bottom of the second inning, David Stimpson singled to lead off, then stole two bases and scored on a wild pitch. 

In the bottom of the third, Raf Rodriguez started a two-out rally with an infield single. Joe Rodriguez drove him in after belting a ball into the right-center gap for a double.  

Joe Rodriguez would later score on a wild pitch to make the score 5-0. 

“I’m just glad my team backed me up,” Rodriguez said.  “We got the job done and that’s all that really mattered.”

Marrero said that this team has more maturity than last year’s team, which made it to the Class L state championship game before falling to Windsor.

“We’re a veteran team,” Marrero said. “Last year we were a younger team. We hit the ball well and were able to take advantage of mistakes.”

Norwich cut the lead to 5-2 in the top of the fourth on back-to-back triples by Rayn Cleary and Connor Doyle. Conner Caulfield drove in Doyle with a sacrifice fly.  

Nowicky kept focused and forced a groundout to end the inning.

“It was a tough situation there,” Nowicky said. “Two pitches were a little off, but I think I did a good job of focusing on the pitch right in front of me and moving on to the next pitch, and I was able to lock in to get the outs that I needed to get.”

Maloney bouncde back in the bottom of the fourth when Duffy hit a RBI single to score Griffin Papallo.  

In the top of the fifth, Raf Rodriguez threw a perfect ball to second baseman Kyle Valentine to catch Norwich’s Ayden Kempesta on an attempted steal to end the inning.

“I didn’t expect him to go, but I was glad that Kyle was there,” Rodriguez said.  

In the bottom of the sixth, Maloney scored four runs highlighted by a Papallo bunt attempt that brought in two runs after a throwing error by the pitcher.  

Those insurance runs proved to be important.

In the top of the seventh, with two outs and one man on, Norwich went on a heart-pounding rally.  Avery Guernsey hit a RBI single, followed by a RBI double by Kempesta, to make the score 9-4.  

A single, a wild pitch that brought home a run, and another RBI single made the score 9-6.  

The man who started the game with a leadoff double was called on to finish the game and send Maloney to the next round. With the tying run at the plate, Tyler Duffy got the final out on a strikeout.

“It helps when we have Tyler Duffy that I can bring in during these situations,” Marrero said. “When you beat him, you earned it.”