Members of the Norwalk, Conn., New England Babe Ruth baseball team pose after 6-3 over  the Southeast Tallahassee, Fla., in the Babe Ruth World Series title game at Adams Field in Quincy.

Norwalk wears Babe Ruth crown

By IAN SPENCER
The Patriot Ledger

   QUINCY - After blowing a 6-1 lead in a semifinal against Youngstown, Ohio, Norwalk players were probably thinking about anything but their dreams of winning the Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series.
   But less than 24 hours after their walk-off win, that dream came true in a 6-3 victory over Tallahassee, Fla.
   “Anything can happen in baseball,” Norwalk, Conn., standout Kevin Daniele said. “Fortunately for us we ended up winning it. Who would have thought? ”
   The same question could be posed in reference to Tallahassee’s run to the final.
   This year’s Southeast Regional champs won the 13-year-old Series last year and looked to be a strong contender coming in.  However, host team Quincy shocked the Floridians by handing them what appeared to be a devastating 2-1 loss on opening night.
   Tallahassee bounced back with five straight wins to fall just short in the championship game.
   “They're tough kids,” Tallahassee manager Mike Harrison said. “Nothing really surprises them.  They played great and it just came down to a couple runs in the end.”
   Johnny Lauttenbach started the game for Norwalk and pitched 2 2/3 innings.  Winning pitcher Alex Petridis moved from left field to replace Lauttenbach in the third and didn’t allow a run in his 4 1/3 innings of work.
   After surrendering three runs in the third inning to trail 3-2, Norwalk rallied around a pair of errors in the fourth.  Daniele, named the most outstanding player of the Series, capped off the rally with an RBI single to make the score 5-3.
   Leon Fleming added another run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly to score catcher Danny Diaz.
   Each team had seven hits in the game that was heavily decided by defense.
   “The line says it all,” Harrison said. “Seven hits, no errors, six runs to seven hits, three errors, three runs.”
   “We’ve always been a defensive team.  That’s how we got here,” Daniele said. “So to come out up a zero spot in the error list wasn’t a surprise to me.  But it’s always great to play good ‘D’ because defense wins game.”
   Defense may win games but it was mostly Daniele’s offense that helped him win four player of the game awards, a spot on the All-World Series team, the Series most outstanding player award, and the most important piece of hardware; a Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series championship trophy.
   “It was unbelievable. I’m glad I helped my team out and I’m glad I won these awards,” Daniele said. “But most of all I’m happy that we won the World Series.”
   Ian Spencer may be reached at ispencer@ledger.com.