Nighthawk Baseball Team’s Memorable Season Ends In Shelton

By Andy Hutchison

SHELTON — Newtown High School’s baseball team’s memorable season came to a forgettable end in a Class LL State Tournament second round loss at Shelton on May 30. The 13th-seeded Nighthawks lost to the fourth-seeded Gaels, 5-0, one day after the Hawks blanked No. 20 Naugatuck 3-0 in the first round.

The Nighthawks, who got superb pitching throughout their South-West Conference title run and into the start of state tourney play, were overmatched by Shelton hurler Ryan Daiss, who tossed a complete game to issue Newtown’s typically hot hitters its first shutout of the campaign.

“It was obviously a big letdown,” said Newtown senior Kyle Wilcox, adding that the Nighthawks were expecting to make a run deep into the state tourney. “Things like that are going to happen in baseball.”

The Nighthawks, who posted a season-high 18 runs in a win over Pomperaug of Southbury in the SWC finale, got a solid pitching effort from Wilcox and enough timely hits to move on in the first-round state tourney win over Naugatuck. They couldn’t get enough pitching or hitting to get past Shelton in round two.

“It burns right now — it’s gonna for a while,” Newtown Coach Matt Memoli said.

Memoli noted that eight of his nine regulars on any given day were seniors and that he would miss this team. “It was just extremely special,” he said.

Memoli also said that the conference title was a step in the right direction for a program that has its eyes on winning a state championship. “Overall, you can’t be upset with the year that we had.”

“It was a great year,” Wilcox concurred. “We worked hard from the offseason all the way through the end of the season.”

In Newtown’s visit to Shelton, Memoli returned to his high school playing day digs. The 2002 Shelton graduate held the school’s career hits record for nearly a decade. Memoli was a second baseman and, in his freshman year, was an infield teammate with his shortstop brother, 1999 graduate Tom Memoli.

“That freshman year was fun on varsity. It was cool. And I had some awesome, awesome memories on this field. Today, not so much,” Memoli said after the season-ending defeat.