Newtown High School’s baseball team kept up its winning ways on the heels of early-May victories over Notre Dame-Fairfield and Stratford as the Nighthawks defeated host Pomperaug of Southbury 7-4 on May 11, beat visiting Weston 7-3 on May 13, then shut out host Bunnell of Stratford 7-0 on May 14 to close out the regular season slate.

With this recent turnaround the Nighthawks have qualified for the South-West Conference Tournament. NHS will visit New Fairfield in the playoff opener Saturday, May 18 at 10 am.

"The kids have been playing together and there’s a different person stepping up each game,” Newtown Coach Ian Thoesen said.

Against Pomperaug the Nighthawks jumped out to a 7-0 lead with four runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth. Kieran Garrity had a hit and drove in three runs and contributed on the pitcher’s mound as well with four and two thirds innings of five-hit, two-run, two-strikeout ball. Dhilan Amim had a hit and drove in two, and Hayden Conklin and Evan Nikolis also drove in runs. Finn Geissler had two hits and a scored a run.

In the Weston game NHS again scored early and often to build a commanding 7-0 lead, this time doing all of its offensive damage in the second frame. Alex Schmidt and Amin homered — a grand slam for Amin and Schmidt's first varsity homer — and Jonathan Moseman had a hit and drove in a run. On the bump it was four scoreless, two-hit innings from Wes Keayes and a combined nine outs of one-hit work without allowing a run by Jack Carta and Amin to help secure the win.

Seven continued to be the magic number for the Hawks in the Bunnell game, and the Hawks improved to 7-6 in conference games this spring.

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