Apr 27, 2006 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

NORTH HUNTINGDON – Norwin lefthander Tom Shipley pitched a no-hitter and struck out 16 Connellsville batters in a 6-0 win Wednesday. Imagine what he’d have done with his good stuff.

“Tommy didn’t have his best game, really,” said Norwin coach Mike Liebdzinski. “His slider’s usually his out pitch. He usually has command of that slider and today he was bouncing it. He didn’t throw well in the bullpen and he didn’t throw well out there.

“It’s hard to say he didn’t throw well when he had a no-hitter and 16 strikeouts, but he didn’t have his off-speed pitch.”

The 6-foot-3 junior didn’t have any off-speed pitches worth throwing, and struggled in that he threw 130 pitches. But when he reached back Shipley had enough gas on his fastball. The Nos. 4-9 batters in the Connellsville lineup managed to put the bat on the ball only one time, and that was a soft pop to the pitcher.

Shipley walked six batters and hit another to account for his high pitch total. When Connellsville loaded the bases in the last inning, Norwin had its ace, Paul Bugajski, warmed up in the bullpen and would’ve brought him in had Shipley not been working on a no-hitter.

Liebdzinski went out to the mound to settle him down before the last out was made by No. 3 hitter Joe Leonard.

“He knew he had a no-hitter going and he was a little pumped up,” Liebdzinski said. “I just told him to calm down and throw like he’d been throwing.”

Norwin took a 2-0 first-inning lead on Connellsville starter Rob Egan. A walk, two singles and a sacrifice fly put Norwin on top.

The lead reached 4-0 in the third when catcher Mark Woleslagle belted a two-run single.

Norwin added a run in the fourth on a Matt Boehm double, and a run in the fifth on a walk and two errors.

Connellsville never threatened to tie the game. At one point Shipley struck out seven consecutive batters. He survived a pair of baserunners in the fourth and two in the sixth before getting out of the bases-loaded jam in the seventh.

“It’s tough to win if you don’t have any hits,” said Connellsville Coach Brian Shipley. “We didn’t come ready to play.”

Connellsville fell to 3-4 in Section 2-AAAA with the loss. It was the Falcons’ fourth section loss in their last five games. Latrobe went into the afternoon with two losses and currently holds third place, which represents the last WPIAL playoff spot in Section 2.

“We still have a chance to make the playoffs,” Shipley said. “We just have to win the majority of our section games to get in. We’re still in the hunt but we’ve got to play baseball. We have to come out and play.”

Shipley seemed more upset than disappointed.

“This is what you work for two or three months in the gym and in the fall,” he said. “This is what you work for: the high school season, to have an opportunity to make the playoffs. But playing like that we’re not going to get there. That’s the reality. Right now we’re not a very good team. We need some people to step up, whether that’s underclassmen or whomever, we have to go in a different direction.”

The win gave Norwin a 6-1 section record, 11-1 overall. It’s probably the best Norwin team since Liebdzinski was the team’s star pitcher and shortstop in 1988.

“We kind of built for this year,” Liebdzinski said. “My first year we played a lot of sophomores in the hope they would all come and we’d have a chance this year. With Tommy and Paul, we have two good pitchers. We have a shot at least.”