By Christopher Tremblay 

With the Norwood High School baseball team making a deep run into the Division 2 State Tournament, the local American Legion team had to hold off starting their summer season. The Mustangs made it to the Round of 16 before falling to the eventual State Champion, Plymouth North. Once Norwood High School’s exit from the state tournament was complete, the Norwood American Legion team could begin their 2024 season within District 6.

Norwood Post 70 unfortunately got off on the wrong foot with a 9-8 loss to Braintree to open their season. According to Norwood skipper Paul Samargedlis, the team had yet to get their sea legs under them with the high school season just ending – the team was just not ready.

At the time of this writing, Norwood had reversed course and was sitting at 8-3; third in the Division 6 standings behind Needham and Franklin. Post 70 has five games remaining on their schedule with two of those games against the two teams sitting ahead of them in the standings. 

The top four teams in the division will get a bye in the first round of the playoffs, while the next eight will square off in a one game elimination. Samargedlis is hoping that his team can hold on and finish within the top four.

“You really don’t want to get involved in a one game playoff,” Samargedlis said. “You never know what can happen in just one game, especially if you happen to go up against the opposition’s ace.”

Norwood would like to go at least 3-2 over their last five contests finishing with 11 wins on the season; according to the coach, should be enough to stay in the upper echelon of the division and earn themselves a first-round bye.

Having only lost three times to date, the Norwood coach firmly believes that his team could quite easily be undefeated.

“All three losses were games that we should have won,” Samargedlis said. “We were the better team, but we just didn’t play like ourselves and gave up leads in all three games.”

In addition to the one run loss on opening day, Norwood also lost to Hyde Park, who currently sits right behind Norwood in the number four spot. Post 70 committed an amazing eight errors in one inning to allow Hyde Park to open up a 13-4 lead. Norwood was able to put together a phenomenal runoff their own in the seventh inning when they scored nine runs (6 with two outs) to tie the game before eventually losing in extra innings.

In their third loss, Norwood found themselves with a 3-0 lead on Walpole through six innings before the pitching staff self-destructed and allowed 11 runs on two hits leaving the coaches in total astonishment as to what had just happened to their reliable pitching staff.

Norwood had 15 returning players come back to play for the team this summer, including three from the Westwood team, which didn’t field a team this year. Having no team to play for, the Westwood players were allowed to try out for a neighboring team and Samargedlis welcomed the three with open arms.

On the mound, Norwood has been lead by their ace, Zach Badger, who is 2-0 on the season; Alex Dayton, one of the Westwood athletes, is also 2-0 when he takes the ball for Norwood while sophomore, Ryan Grenham, has been a pleasant surprise leading the staff with a 3-0 record.

Grenham’s twin brother Mike is also on the team as a catcher.

“I knew that the twins were really good baseball players,” the Norwood Coach said. “Unfortunately for them, Norwood had a lot of talented upperclassmen playing in front of them so they didn’t get a lot of playing time for the high school.”

When Dayton is not pitching, the Westwood teammate patrols centerfield for Norwood, and according to the coach, catches everything that comes his way. He also bats third for the squad.

At the plate, Elliot Harris, from Westwood, was the team’s leadoff hitter with the likes of first baseman Sean Dittmeier (a four-year player who plays for Wheaton College), Eoin McDonagh, Tom Benson Jr (the team’s number two hitter and second baseman) Badger and Giacomo Serratore all contributing in the team’s success.

Norwood also has three of four athletes that are banged up right now and Samargedlis is hoping that they’ll be ready and back in time to help the team out for a deep playoff run. 

“Baseball is a tough sport and there is no instant gratification,” the Samargedlis said. “The sport is based on failure, and unfortunately, today’s kids don’t get enough failure. I still think that it is the best sport when you achieve something and I still enjoy coaching it.”

Samargedlis is now hoping over the final five games of the regular season that Norwood doesn’t have to taste too much failure as they gear up for the District 6 Playoffs.

Update to Original Article

The Norwood American Legion team did just what Samargedlis wanted over the last five contests: going 3-2 with wins over Weymouth, Walpole, and Easton, while falling to Franklin and Needham. Post 70 finished the regular season 11-5 and is currently tied with Franklin and Hyde Park with 22 points, but Franklin has one game remaining and a win would move them into seconds place while Norwood and Hyde Park would round out the top four to get the bye before heading into the tournament.