Tim Norton had it working on the mound against Bourne yesterday afternoon. The right-hander from the University of Connecticut led the Commodores to a much-needed victory on a humid afternoon near the Bourne Bridge as Falmouth edged the western division leader by a 1-0 score. 

Norton was on top of his game from the outset. Only one man all afternoon would advance as far as second base against him during an eight-inning stint that featured 10 strikeouts and two hits allowed. Improving to 3-1 on the season, Norton also took over first place in the Cape Cod League in strikeouts with 53 thus far in his seven appearances, surpassing Tim Lincecum (Washington), who was leading the Cape with 46 K’s.

The only two men to garner hits against Norton were Mike Hernandez (Mississippi State) and Brett Bartles (Duke). Hernandez singled to left in the second inning to start things off, but then was erased when the next batter hit into a double play. Bartles connected for a two-out double in the third, but was stranded when the next man fanned.

Other than those two base runners, only one other man would reach base against Norton. Brad Lincoln (Houston) walked in the seventh, which broke up a string of 11 in a row set down by the starter for Falmouth.

Norton said that his success should be credited to the man behind the plate, Falmouth’s resident iron man, Jon Still (Stetson). When asked what he had working against the Braves, Norton was quick to respond that “Jon Still was working for me. It’s always nice when your stuff is working, and your catcher knows what to throw down (for signs). I’m just thinking about throwing strikes, and we just need to get on a roll right now.”

Still said he thought that Norton was excellent against the Braves’ hitters, who have done a good job of scoring runs this season. “He got a lot of pitches over for strikes and didn’t miss a lot of spots,” Still said of Norton. “He didn’t fall behind hitters, and when he’s got his stuff, you can tell. He’s hard to hit.”

Chris Krawczyk (Southwest Missouri State) worked the ninth for Falmouth, earning his third save of the year. Krawczyk struck out the first batter he faced and then induced a ground-out for the second out of the frame. Things got a bit interesting when the potential tying run, Justin Henry (Ole Miss), walked, but then Krawczyk came back to strike out the final batter of the game for the Braves as Ty Wright (Oklahoma State) went down looking. Wright would argue vehemently with the home plate ump after getting called out, and may have had a case as the ball appeared outside, but the Commodores gladly took the 1-0 win.

Offensively, Falmouth scored all of the runs it would need in the top of the first inning. The Commodores, who would strand eight runners in the ballgame, plated a run against Chris Manganaro (South Florida) in the first on three singles. Matt Antonelli (Wake Forest) led off with a hit and would later score on a solid single through the middle by Mark Hamilton. For Hamilton, it was his team-leading 19th run batted in. Despite missing the first two weeks of the season to play in the College World Series with his Tulane teammates, Hamilton is now tied for third in the CCBL in RBIs.

The Commodores improved to 13-15-1. Although still in fourth place in the west division, the Commodores are now just three games out of first place as they trail first place Bourne (16-12-1) by just six points overall in the standings. Each team has 15 games left to play.