Newtown High School's Kyle Roche and Ridgefield's Alex Price each battled on the mound in the baseball season opener, in Newtown, on Saturday, March 31. In the end, Ridgefield came away with a 2-1 victory.

Roche delivered 5.2 innings of four-hit ball with ten strikeouts and issued a pair of walks. Reliever Orlando Swift fanned three of four batters in an inning and a third of relief. Swift came on with two base runners aboard and escaped trouble with one pitch, inducing a grounder back to the mound. Swift struck out the side in the seventh, keeping it a one-run game. Between the three hurlers, 27 of 42 combined outs were recorded via the strikeout.

In the bottom half of the seventh, Eugene Citrano clubbed his second triple of the afternoon, with one out, but was left stranded.

Citrano had a three-base hit and scored on Luke Melillo's sacrifice fly in the second inning for a 1-0 Newtown lead.

The Hawks managed just three hits off Price, who accumulated 14 strikeouts. Rob Murray had Newtown's only other hit, a single.

Newtown kept the lead until the fifth. The Tigers scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, with Pete Columbia smacking a home run.

"It was a great game - it was a pitcher's duel," Newtown Coach Ian Thoesen said. "I think the game could have gone either way."

The Nighthawks are scheduled to host Watertown on Thursday, April 5, at 4:30 pm, and will visit Fairfield Warde on Friday, April 6, with the first pitch set for 4:30 pm.