Champs Of The Baseball Diamonds — Host Newtown 14s Win Jimmy Fund Tournament

Newtown won the 14U Babe Ruth Jimmy Fund Tournament championship with a 10-2 victory over Pomperaug this past Saturday. Newton was led by the pitching of Stephen Brittin who was named MVP of the championship game and by tournament co-MVPs Sam Czel and Jack Procaccini.

The Jimmy Fund was hosted by Newtown and $4,500 was raised for the fight against cancer. Tourney officials thank everyone who donated money for this worthy cause and to the volunteers that made the tournament successful.

Newtown opened up tournament play with a 12-0 win over Ridgefield. Stephen Brittin and David Matthews combined to pitch a shutout. Jaret DeVellis, Michael Parker, and Brittin each had a hit and scored two runs. Czel had two hits, Matt Elias and Matthews had a hit each, and Michael Doyle scored 2 runs.

In game two, Newtown defeated state champion New Milford by the score of 7-4. Matt Maturo pitched 4 shutout innings and had a hit and RBI to help his team defeat New Milford. Czel had Procaccini had 2 hits each and Chris Calo, Parker, Doyle and Matthews had hits to led the offense. Mason Melillo closed the game by pitching the final 3 innings in this key win over one of Newtown’s rivals.

Newtown defeated a scrappy New Fairfield team by the score of 7-2 behind the two-hit pitching of Michael Parker who held the opposition to one run over 5 innings.

Czel, Melillo, and Procaccini had 2 hits each to lead the offense and Brittin closed out the game with 2 strong innings. Matthews had a double and scored 2 runs and Jared Brady scored a key run early in the game.

In the 1st game of the playoffs, Pomperaug stunned Newtown with a 12-11 eight inning victory after trailing  6-0 after the first inning. Pomperaug pulled ahead 7-6 after scoring 5 runs in the fourth inning as Newtown’s defense made several errors against its hard-hitting opponent. Pomperaug scored three more runs in the fifth and Newtown trailed by the score of 10-6 going into the sixth when the bats finally woke up.

Michale Doyle, who had 3 hits, knocked in one run and Calo knocked in the other to make it 10-8. Trailing by three runs in the seventh, Newtown staged a wild rally to score 3 runs to tie it with key hits from Brittin, Jaret DeVellis (triple) and Jack Procaccini’s RBI single with two outs to tie the game. Popmeraug won it in the eighth with a long tripe to score the winning run. 

The game was hard fought by both teams and had dramatic comebacks during the 3 hour and 30 minute marathon played in 90 degree heat.  Luckily for Newtown, Pomperaug had to defeat it twice to take the title since Newtown was undefeated and Pomperaug already had one loss to New Milford.

In the championship game, Newtown set the tone early with strong defense in the first inning.  DeVellis made a running catch in the outfield and then threw to Parker at first base who jumped as high as he could to catch the throw to double up the runner. After scoring a run in the first on a DeVellis double and an RBI by Czel on a fielder’s choice, Newtown scored 5 runs in the second inning to take a lead it would not relinquish.

Procaccini led off with a single and after 2 walks to load the bases, Michael Doyle executed a perfect squeeze play to score a runner and was safe at first. Matt Elias hit a hard ball to second that was not fielded which resulted in another run. With the bases loaded again, Brittin surprised everyone at Fairfield Hills Field by executing a perfect bunt that resulted in 2 more runs scored. Brittin protected the six-run lead by throwing strikes and mixing his pitches well over five scoreless innings. The strong-hitting Pomperaug team threatened to score in the fourth with the bases loaded but Melillo caught a line drive at third base and recorded the double play to end the inning.

Newtown scored 3 more runs in the sixth behind singles from Parker, Czel and Prcoaccini’s third hit of the game. Matthews chipped in with a RBI sacrifice fly and Melillo held Pomperaug to two runs over the final two innings to close out the game.

In the tournament, Czel and Procaccinni both hit for a sizzling .692 batting average. Parker, DeVellis, Doyle, and Melillo each hit over .350, Chris Calo knocked in four runs, and Jared Brady stole 5 bases.

Brittin had 2 wins on the mound, Parker and Maturo each had a victory, and Doyle and Elias played five errorless games.