Evening Sun Report

Baseball

Norwich 12, Johnson City 5

NORWICH - Norwich junior pitcher Cody Barnes was nearly unhittable, and the Tornado batters were on the mark early in an opening-day victory Friday at Norwich High School.

Barnes struck out the side twice in five innings of work finishing with 10 strikeouts and one hit allowed. He was helped out right away with NHS starting the game with a seven-run first, and following that up with five more tallies in the second inning.

“We’re pretty excited with the way we hit the ball,” said Norwich coach Rich Turnbull. “We’ve spent so much time on batting practice, and it really paid off today.”

NHS’s John Yacano was a perfect 3-for-3 with two ribbies, Colby Griffin added three hits in four trips to the plate, and Robert Jeffrey doubled twice driving in two runs.

All of that offense was perhaps superfluous as Barnes contained the JC hitters with essentially one pitch. “I bet 98 percent of the pitches he threw today were fastballs,” Turnbull said of his junior lefty hurler. “I figured it was cold weather out, and we wanted to keep it simple and see if they could hit it. He was blowing it right by them.”

Norwich returns to the diamond today when it visits perennial power Chenango Valley.

JCity 000 000 5 5 6 3

Norw. 750 000 x 12 12 4