Newtown High School’s baseball team showed plenty of fight but could not overcome the visiting Immaculate of Danbury Mustangs in a 5-4 setback on April 26. Down 5-1, the Nighthawks clawed back to make things very interesting.

Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh and final inning the Hawks gave themselves a chance when Lucian Place delivered a pinch hit double leading off and Hayden Conklin reaching on a hit by pitch. Dhilan Amin bunted the runners into scoring position and was retired with a productive first out. Kieran Garrity hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the fourth run but the Nighthawks left the tying run on base.

Garrity and Amin had RBI hits to cut a four-run deficit in half in the sixth inning. The Hawks stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the sixth.

After Immaculate took a 3-0 lead the Nighthawks scratched out a run with some alert base running in the fifth. Evan Nikolis and Jack Carta singled, and pinch runner Peter Eppers raced home to score on a throw when pinch runner Alex Schmidt stole second base. Immaculate got two runs back in the top of the sixth.

Newtown pitchers Jamie Piccuillo and Nikolis combined for nine strikeouts and scattered only a few hits but were hurt by errors as three of the visiting team’s runs were aided by Newtown fielding miscues.

“I like the way we battled. I liked our at bats,” Newtown Coach Ian Thoesen said.

Newtown was blanked 3-0 on the road by Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport on April 24. Amin pitched solidly and struck out 12 batters to help keep his team in the game. The Hawks dropped their fifth straight game at St Joseph of Danbury on April 27, then fell 7-0 at Brookfield on April 29. Thoesen likes his team’s effort and is enthusiastic about the potential for Newtown to string together some wins.

Newtown, following Wednesday’s visit to New Milford, will return to its home away from home when Masuk of Monroe comes to Fairfield Hills Friday, May 3, for a 6:30 pm first pitch.

“This is such a great group of kids. They’ve been working their butts off every practice,” Thoesen said.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.