Trojans’ early lead beats Afton

NORWICH – The Purple Tornado’s Nate Thorpe picked up the win, a first for the Norwich baseball team this season, with his arm on the hill Wednesday afternoon at home. The Tornado defeated Chenango Forks 5-2 with the effort on both sides of the ball to support their pitcher, who threw a gem.

Thorpe went four innings with two hit and one run scored before an error in the top of the fifth scored the second Blue Devils’ run of the game. He threw two strikeouts in the process while his defense fielded the ball well to put out the other batters.

“Nate [Thorpe] tossed a great game for us on the mound,” said Norwich head coach Rich Turnbull. “He made the other team put the ball in play and our fielder’s were able to make the plays to get us out of each inning.”

Forks scored a run in the top of the first when lead-off hitter Ethan Cetton got on base with a single on a 0-1 count pitch. Cetton then stole second and advanced a base when teammate Matt Conklin hit the ball back to Thorpe.

With time to get the runner out at first, Thorpe picked up the out. The Blue Devils’ Bryan Haskell then drove a fly ball out to centerfield, scoring Cetton on a sacrafice fly out.