Lightning Baseball Highlights

Newtown Lightning Connecticut Senior Baseball League game highlights from late spring and early summer league action are as follows:

Newtown Lightning 10, Amity 6: Trailing 5-1 after four innings, the Lightning erupted for seven fifth-inning runs and rode the golden pitching arm of Alex Saviano to victory June 3 in Orange. The win was not only Newtown’s third in four games against Amity, but also sweet revenge against the team that beat the Lightning in the spring 2011 championship game. Newtown scored first after Ben Stoller and Wyatt Depuy ripped singles to right center. Stoller stole third base and scored when the catcher’s throw bounced into left field. Saviano got no defensive support early, giving up five unearned runs.

In the fifth, Saviano reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second, moved to third on an Alex Romeo single and scored on a wild pitch. David Vallerie walked, and Romeo and Vallerie scored on James Rebman’s grounder that was misplayed by the second baseman. Brandon Cooper walked, and Stoller drilled a two-strike single through the left-field hole. Depuy crushed an RBI single to right, and Scott Cunningham lined a blistering single to right. Saviano shut the door, throwing two shutout innings to end the game and finishing the six-hit, complete-game victory with 10 strikeouts. He was assisted by exceptional defensive play by the catcher, Cooper, and the first baseman Stoller. Cooper made a sliding catch into the backstop to snare a foul pop in the sixth inning. With one out and a runner on third, the next batter struck out on a curve ball in the dirt, and the ball bounced away. Cooper retrieved it and threw to first for the out. Stoller then fired a strike to Cooper to erase the runner trying to score from third.

Pomperaug 7, Newtown 5: Newtown rallied from a 5-1 deficit but couldn’t overcome a flat start June 2 at Newtown High School Field. Held to one hit over the first four innings, Newtown awakened in the fifth inning when Alex Romeo blasted a double to right center that scored Austin Ekstrom and Ryan O’Keefe, who each had walked. Nick Heron followed by ripping an RBI single down the left-field line. Newtown’s only other hits were singles by Ben Stoller, Brandon Cooper, and Eric Sutton. O’Keefe played superbly at third base, ranging for two foul pops and making various other putouts and assists. 

Newtown Lightning 7, Milford One 3: Returning home after a successful rookie baseball season at Franklin & Marshall College, Chris Haylon hurled five innings without giving up an earned run and got the win in the Lightning’s opening summer game Saturday at Fairfield Hills Field. Haylon, who pitched for the Newtown High School varsity last year, struck out six, scattered five singles and walked two. Colton Sposta, who will be a senior on the varsity next year, got the save, retiring six of seven batters he faced. Sposta used a late-breaking slider and a pinpoint fast ball to overpower Milford’s batters, comprising several former and present varsity players at Law and Foran high schools.

Newtown’s offensive attack was led by Will Arndt, who quarterbacks the Western Connecticut State University football team, and three players — Ben Stoller, Brandon Cooper, and Wyatt Depuy — who led the Lightning to a spring championship this year. Haylon stranded runners on second and third in the first inning, getting one out on a come-backer to the mound and striking out the next batter looking. In the second inning, Newtown catcher Mike Allwein, a mainstay behind the plate for the varsity this past season, cut down the leadoff hitter who had walked and attempted to steal second. Newtown’s defense came through again in the third inning when shortstop Arndt flipped to Austin Ekstrom, who threw to Stoller for an inning-ending double play.

Newtown broke the scoreless tie by scoring five third-inning runs. Haylon beat out a well-placed bunt, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. Alex Romeo lofted a fly ball to left field that was dropped, scoring Haylon. Romeo stole second, moved to third when Arndt crushed a line-drive single to center and scored on a wild pitch. Stoller walked and Lucia got hit by a pitch to load the bases. Allwein knocked in a run on a fielder’s choice, Eric Sutton walked and Cooper drilled an RBI single to right. Allwein scored the fifth run on another wild pitch. In the fourth inning, Depuy clubbed a double to left center, and Stoller lined an RBI single to center. Milford broke through for three fifth-inning runs, assisted by two Newtown errors, to make the score 6-3. The rally was cut short by a diving catch in left field by Allwein, playing his only inning away from catching. Allwein threw to second baseman Ryan Pisani to double up the runner trying to scramble back to second. In the bottom of the inning, Allwein singled to deep short, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Bobby Archiere slapped a ball that was booted by the shortstop.

Newtown 6, Seymour 2: Colton Sposta limited Seymour to one hit and one run over five innings, and Will Arndt blasted a two-RBI double to break open a tight game in the fifth inning Sunday at Newtown High School Field. The first three innings were a pitcher’s duel between Sposta and Jake Sussman, who just finished his senior season on Career Magnet High School’s varsity team. Neither pitcher yielded a hit, but Newtown scored two first-inning runs. Arndt and Ben Stoller walked, and David Lucia reached on a force out. Michael Allwein slapped an RBI groundout to second base, and Lucia scored on a wild pitch. Lucia lined a single for Newtown’s first hit in the fourth inning and went to third when the second baseman threw wildly attempting a double play on Allwein’s grounder. Eric Sutton lined an RBI single to left field.

Leading 3-1 in the fifth inning, Eric Pisani cracked a single to left center, and Ryan Pisani and Sposta reached on errors by the third baseman that loaded the bases. Arndt crushed a double over the left fielder’s head to score two runs, and Ben Stoller ripped a long sacrifice fly to left to bring home another run. Eric Pisani pitched the sixth inning and gave up one run, and Dan Harrison pitched the final inning for the save. Lucia, Stoller, and Allwein played spectacular defense. Lucia made a headlong dive for a catch in center in the fourth inning, first baseman Stoller leaped high to grab a bad throw and scooped a throw in the dirt for two putouts, and Allwein threw out a runner stealing and blocked numerous pitches in the dirt.