Norwich edges Willimantic, eyes state Legion tournament bye

With each zone’s top two teams earning a first round bye into next week’s American Legion baseball state tournament, the battle for second place in Zone 6 took center stage Tuesday night in Willimantic.

Waterford clinched its fourth straight Zone 6 championship weeks ago, leaving Norwich, Willimantic and Tri-Town in a dead-heat in the loss column for second place.

Norwich took a big step towards securing the coveted bye, and a pair of postseason home games, with a 2-1 victory over Willimantic at Recreation Park.

“We have the playoff mentality right now,” Norwich manager Becker Bordeau said. “This game really helped us. Hopefully, we can catch those bye games.”

Norwich, which holds both tiebreakers over Willimantic and Tri-Town, captured its fifth straight win and moved a game and a half ahead of Willimantic in the standings.

Former New London High star Derrel Mitchell powered Norwich with a terrific complete game pitching performance. Mitchell, a righthander, struck out eight, walked none, and allowed just three hits.

“He throws strikes,” Bordeau said. “Derrel pitched his butt off. He’s been doing that all year for us.”

A two-way player at UConn-Avery Point, Mitchell retired the first 11 batters before Jesus Sanchez bounced a single into center field with two outs in the fourth inning. Mitchell responded by firing 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth.

“It was just all adrenaline,” Mitchell said. “Once I get the adrenaline going I’m locked in. I had faith in my defense and that really helped too.”

Mitchell’s counterpart, Trey Lindsey, also went the distance. Lindsey, the former Windham Tech star, scattered five hits, struck out three and walked one.

“He really made us work,” Bordeau said.

Norwich scored its runs in the second inning. Mitchell led off with a double to left center. With one out, Yeremi Garcia singled to center and moved to second base on an error. Mitchell raced home on Jacob Citro’s groundout to second and beat the return throw to home plate. An error on the throw, however, allowed Garcia to also trot home and Norwich led 2-0.

Mitchell took his shutout bid into the bottom of the seventh. But Gavin Covell, who made a pair of spectacular diving catches in centerfield, led off with a double along the left field line. With one out, Lucas Tarbell made it 2-1 with an RBI single to center.

Lindsey then hit into a fielder’s choice but he stole second to put the tying run in scoring position. Mitchell, however, capped his great performance with a game-ending strikeout.

“I wasn’t worried (about the tying run). I knew I was going to get him at the plate,” Mitchell said.

Chris Tonucci (double), Connor Doyle, and Derek Macy each had hits for Norwich (11-8), which moved into the state tournament’s No. 8 seed with three games remaining in the regular season.

“It really helps us having a bye week in the first round so we can save pitching and get ready for whoever is up next. But we need to get through these three games (Waterford, Moosup, Danielson) and win them,” Bordeau said. “We have a really good group of guys that want to win and want to be here. We wouldn’t be here if it weren't for them.”