Newtown High School’s baseball team, held hitless by Bunnell of Stratford pitcher Ronnie Rossomando for six innings, didn’t get anything going offensively until a trio of seventh-inning singles produced a run, It was too little, too late, as the Nighthawks suffered a 4-1 South-West Conference tournament quarterfinal-round loss, on May 23.

Host Bunnell, the No. 3 seed in the tournament advanced to the semifinals, and the sixth-seeded Nighthawks will have to wait for the start of state tournament play to try to get back into the win column.

Newtown Coach Matt Memoli is hopeful that the late-game rally, singles by David Matthews, Michael Parker, and Charlie Huegi, the last of which drove in the run – is a sign of things to come in states. Memoli was pleased with the fact his team didn’t give up, and managed to get the potential tying run in the batter’s box in the final frame.

“I’ll take these guys any day of the week,” Memoli said of his team members, who defeated Bunnell in a regular-season meeting back in April.

Matthews credited Rossomando for pitching well, adding “we just didn’t get it done today.”

Matthews, playing first base, made a nice grab at the wall in foul territory for one of the visiting team’s highlights. The Bulldogs struck for a pair of first inning runs off of Newtown starter Jason Hebner, and got two more runs off of Parker before hanging on. Now, the Nighthawks will practice hard and gear up for a possible run deep into state play, where – once again – every team faces a single elimination scenario.

“Anything can happen – whether you’re a one seed or a 20-whatever seed,” Memoli said. “I definitely have confidence.”

“We’ll go out and play the best we can,” Matthews added.