Baseball Team Aims To Contend In Wide Open SWC

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School Baseball Coach Carl Strait has seen his team make strides and continue to win 12 or 13 games for each of the last four seasons. If that trend is to continue and the Nighthawks are to qualify for the Class LL state tournament for the fifth straight year, it will take winning their share of low-scoring nail-biters, Strait believes.

“We will have to win a lot of 3-2, 2-1 ball games,” said Strait, adding that he anticipates the Nighthawks struggling to score runs.

But Strait does not expect the team to struggle to at least contend in the South-West Conference, which he said is wide open.

“Graduation took a toll on us and the rest of the league. The top teams took a couple steps back, the bottom teams just got a little stronger,” the coach said.

Strait said the team’s pitching and defense are average following the loss of five starters and six key players to graduation a year ago. This includes three-quarters of the infield/two arms from the pitching staff: All-State shortstop Alex Magoulas, pitcher/third baseman Nick Saviano (now at Springfield College), pitcher/third baseman Greg Rodden and second baseman Nick Urso (St Mary’s in Maryland). Also gone are center fielder and All-SWC honoree PJ Cochrane and outfielder Walt Murphy.

Five starters return to the team, which went 12-10 overall (8-4 in SWC play) a year ago. The captains are seniors Jake DeVellis (pitcher/outfielder) and Chris Marks (infielder/pitcher) along with junior catcher Brandon Rosenberger. Marks, who suffered a broken leg playing soccer in the fall of 2007, missed the baseball season a year ago but returned to the soccer pitch this past fall.

Other key returnees are seniors Canisius College-bound Charlie Lobosco (outfielder/pitcher), Anthony Lucia (outfielder/pitcher), Keith McGrath (third baseman) and Ricky Gallucci (first baseman); juniors Kyle Kromberg (outfielder) and George Zaruba (first base); and sophomore RJ Roman (pitcher/second base).

Newcomers are juniors Colby Brown (shortstop), Andy Lapple (second base), Dan Milot (catcher), Joe Fedak (third base/pitcher) and John Fracker (outfield/pitcher); and sophomores Bryan Czel (outfield) and Ryan Tita (shortstop).

The Nighthawks were scheduled to begin the season Wednesday at home against Pomperaug (after The Bee sports section went to press) and, following another home game against Ridgefield on Thursday, the Hawks will visit Immaculate in Danbury on April 13.