Norfolk powers past Syracuse with five homers in 14-3 rout

Norfolk turned NBT Bank Stadium into a launch pad Friday night, and Syracuse never found a way to shut the door once the first blast landed. The Tides hit five home runs in a 14-3 rout that was effectively settled before the Mets could settle in, then put the game out of reach with a seven-run eighth inning.

Johnathan Rodríguez opened the scoring with a first-inning solo shot, and Jud Fabian followed with a three-run homer in the second to give Norfolk a fast 4-0 cushion. Syracuse answered in the bottom half when Ben Rortvedt homered, then Jihwan Bae cut into the gap again with a two-run homer in the third, his fifth of the season, but the Mets were still chasing after every swing. The early home-run exchange made the night feel briefly alive; the late scoreline showed it never really was.

Zach Thornton started for Syracuse and lasted four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. By then, Norfolk had already forced the Mets into catch-up mode, and the Tides kept adding pressure with Rodríguez’s RBI double in the sixth before the inning that broke the game open. In the eighth, José Barrero drilled a three-run homer and Ryan Noda added another long ball as Norfolk scored seven times in the frame. The Tides finished with five homers, while Syracuse’s offense was left trying to answer damage that kept compounding.

Syracuse’s lineup included Nick Morabito, Andy Ibáñez, Cristian Pache, Hayden Senger and Kevin Parada, but the Mets could not match the power on the other side. Morabito did swipe his 21st base of the season, and Rortvedt’s homer gave Syracuse one of its few clean offensive swings of the night, yet the rally energy never translated into real pressure once Norfolk started stacking extra-base hits.

The loss came in front of an announced crowd of 6,004 and dropped the Mets into the kind of game that exposes pitching problems in the harshest way. Syracuse had won 6-5 in 10 innings the night before, its fifth walk-off win of the season, but Friday was the opposite story: Norfolk hit first, hit harder and kept hitting until the final margin looked as lopsided as the inning-by-inning damage.