When the season began, Newtown High School's baseball team members anticipated having to play small ball - executing bunts, hit and runs, and bunching together singles - to be successful. That, to a good degree, has been the case, but the Nighthawks have had so much success spraying the ball around the field that the box scores often make it look as though Newtown's lineup is loaded with sluggers.

The Nighthawks did have six extra-base hits, a home run off the bat of Sam Czel along with five doubles, in an 8-4 win over host Joel Barlow of Redding on April 22. But a bulk of Newtown's hits this spring have been singles, and many of the hits - singles or of the extra base variety - of late have been hit up the middle or the opposite way as hitters take a strategic approach at the plate.

"We're hitting the ball the other way and up the middle. We're not pulling," Newtown Coach Memoli said after the triumph over Barlow, which pushed Newtown's winning streak to four games. "It's a good sign."

Memoli attributes the recent success to his team members buying into the approach of not trying to pull the ball, and use of a hitting machine that spits out curve balls. As Memoli notes, most high school pitchers don't bring heat to the plate, so practice and repetition hitting slower pitches pays off.

Against Barlow, Newtown compiled 14 hits, including three each off the bats of Czel, Jack Procaccini, and Dylan Tyrell. Pitcher Jason Hebner helped his own cause with a pair of knocks and run scored.

Czel doubled twice and drove in two runs. Austin Kasbarian, Tyrell, Mason Melillo, and Todd Peterson all drove in runs.

Tyrell notes that the Nighthawks, who graduated most of their power at the plate from last year's lineup, were not expecting to have this much run-producing prowess.

"It feels incredible. To see that we do, it's enlightening," said Tyrell, who had two doubles against Barlow. "I think we're just going to carry this momentum and keep pounding."

The Barlow game marked the second straight eight-run outburst for the Nighthawks, who were coming off an 8-5 win over visiting Immaculate of Danbury two days earlier, with a completely different group of Nighthawks accounting for the team's runs batted in. Dan Pearson and Connor Barrett led the charge with two hits and two RBI each. Sam Grossano, Tucker Kistner, and Jake Oliger also drove in runs. Pearson doubled, and Czel and Procaccini had triples as Newtown built an 8-1 lead before holding on.

Pitcher Andrew Ross went six innings and allowed one unearned run on four hits and four walks, striking out seven along the way.

"I would have taken two games with four runs here and three runs there. I'll take that any day," Memoli said of back-to-back eight-run outbursts.

Newtown followed up the Barlow game by doubling up another opponent, winning 6-3 over visiting Brookfield on April 25, for its fifth straight win to improve to 7-3 overall. Czel had three hits and Lucas O'Brien and Oliger both had two as part of a ten-hit effort. O'Brien doubled and Oliger tripled; the rest of the hits were singles, and six Nighthawks reached via base hits. Pearson drove in two runs and four other Hawks each chipped in with an RBI.

Newtown showed off its speed with seven stolen bases in this contest; four by Czel, two by Melillo, and one by Tyrell. Kasbarian went 62/3 innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out four to earn the win.

"As long as everybody's contributing and doing the best they can we're unstoppable," Tyrell added.