By Jim Stout
MaxPreps.com
NORWALK, Conn. --- For the early-April, bone-chilling scholastic baseball opener, initial developments on the field were as familiar as the Down jackets, wool hats and tightly wrapped scarves in the stands:
Ball one.ball two.strike one.ball three.strike two.ball four.
High school baseball is often tedious and cruel during the first week of the season in the Northeast. Throw in temperatures in the low 40s, wind chills in the low 30s, and a field that played more like an Iditarod course than a diamond and no wonder Norwalk High left-hander Richie Sullivan needed just six pitches last Saturday to produce the season's first walk.
But a funny thing happened to Sullivan and his Norwalk teammates as they attempted to negotiate the wintry Opening Day elements at City Hall Field - a mid-season clinic in near-perfection broke out.
Not only did Norwalk ignore the conditions in its sparkling and uncontested 5-0 victory over City rival McMahon, the perennial FCIAC contenders seemed to be sending a message to teams everywhere that play in cold and challenging weather; make that two messages:
One: Shut up and play.
Two: If you're truly serious about winning a championship, deal with it.
"These kids are focused," said Norwalk coach Angelo Bruno, whose team won the FCIAC regular season championship a year ago and was ranked an underrated 15th in the state during the preseason.
"And the thing is with these guys, once they start to believe in themselves, they'll play well. I'm very happy with the way we played today. There were a couple of (mistakes) on the bases, but I caused one of them (from the third base coaches' box). Hey, it's been a while since I've been out there, too.
"Other than that, we played a near-perfect ballgame," Bruno added. "We played well under the conditions, which I think indicates how good we can be (later in the season). I think we have a lot of talent here. If we start to believe in ourselves offensively, we can be very strong."
No one was stronger and in greater command than Sullivan, the Central Connecticut recruit who opened the game by issuing that ominous base on balls. Sullivan finished with a complete-game two hitter and struck out seven. After walking McMahon leadoff hitter Ken O'Brien, he did not walk another batter until the seventh, and allowed only six base runners for the game, while throwing 105 pitches.
Cold? What cold?
"Today was pretty cold but it really didn't affect how we played," said Sullivan, who also drove in the first run of the season by being hit with a pitch with the bases loaded in the first inning.
"The weather can be an advantage to pitchers provided you can get a good grip on the ball. Sometimes the ball slips out of your hand, but I'm sure it goes both ways for hitters. To get up there at bat and then have to run around the bases and stuff when you're muscles are cold, it's tough. But we played well in this (weather) and hopefully we can build on it.
"I mean, we know we're good," Sullivan added. "If we play hard all season we're going to be tough to beat if we're running on all cylinders."
Despite walking the opening batter in typical bad-weather style, Sullivan would have taken a no-hitter into the seventh inning - against a veteran McMahon lineup, on less - had it not been for bad-hop single by McMahon's Steve Buckett in the second inning.
In addition to the weather being brutal, the winter-beaten field had not been rolled and smoothed properly, making every ball that hit the brown and lumpy infield and outfield grass an adventure.
Still, the two teams combined for just three errors. McMahon's otherwise reputable outfield struggled with its defensive play on several occasions, but that's the kind of thing you expect early in the season with high school baseball. The last thing you expect is the near perfection that Norwalk displayed.
"It wasn't a great day to swing the bats," said Bruno, "but we took advantage of opportunities that came our way, and that's a sign of a good team: not giving anything away, and when you're given something, you take advantage of it."
"Norwalk did what they were supposed to," said McMahon coach John Cross, whose team finished 17-6 overall in 2006 and second in the FCIAC regular season behind Norwalk.
"Sullivan fell behind some of our hitters but we weren't able to put anything together. In order to beat a good team you have to play well and we didn't play well."
In addition to returning veteran players such as Sullivan, Angelo Bruno, Jr., Joe Reddock, Will Calnan, Matt Mola, Scott Merritt, Matt Iannazzo and Dan Nieves, Norwalk stands to benefit from the transfer of senior shortstop Matt Taliercio, who came over to Calvin Murphy Drive from St. Luke's.
Taliercio began his career as a freshman at Norwalk before transferring to the private New Canaan school. Bruno batted him second in the lineup to mark his return to Norwalk and he responded with a single and a double in his first two times up.
"The kid (Taliercio) has hit since he was born," the Norwalk coach said. "I've seen the kid hit since he was nine years old and he can swing the bat. He's a good athlete. He can have a big impact on this team. It's nice to have another stick in the middle of the lineup."
Though McMahon struggled at the plate and in the outfield, Cross was reasonably pleased by the debut of the two pitchers he used, senior Frank Cosentino and junior Rocco Cundari, two arms he's counting on to fill the void left by the graduated Kevin Fico and Jake Kozar.
"(Cosentino) walked a couple of guys and hit a couple but he only gave up five runs," said Cross. "In high school baseball, five runs should be enough (to win) if you consider yourself a pretty good team offensively.
"And Rocco came in and did a pretty good job of shutting (Norwalk) down," Cross added. "This was a good test for him to see how he did against one of the better teams in the league. And he struck out one of the best guys in the league (Taliercio) since (former Gatorade player-of-the-year Mike) Fournier of Fairfield. Taliercio has a quick bat. He's going to help them."
Though Bruno steered clear of making any predictions about the season, he didn't shy away from one personal sentiment concerning his Norwalk players.
"These kids are going to give me everything they've got all year long," he said. "I'm really looking forward to the next couple of months with these guys."
And maybe to a little warm weather as well.
Jim Stout is the MaxPreps.com Master Photographer for the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area and a Northeast Region columnist. He may be reached at 203-563-2297 or at j.stout@jmstout.org.