Like California in the 1800’s, Newtown enjoyed its own Gold Rush last week when the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 10-year-old travel team (the Gold Rush) rolled to the championship of its own Cal Ripken 10-And-Under Tournament at Glander Field.

The Newtown 10-year-olds and Newtown 9-year-olds were joined by All Star teams from Middlebury, Woodbury, Redding and Southbury at the first annual tournament. The tournament began with round robin play and after the Gold Rush won all four games there, it earned the No. 1 seed for the elimination round over the weekend.

After beating Redding, 9-5, in the tournament opener, it was the pitching and defense that dominated the next three games. The Gold Rush easily defeated both Southbury teams (the 10s and 9s) in a double header, 14-3 and 11-1, and then followed with a 9-2 win over Middlebury.

Strong pitching from Ryan Dunnigan (no runs allowed in four innings of work) along with solid performances from Kyle Wilcox and Michael Lengel established Newtown as the team to beat. The defense was equally impressive, with double plays from Jake Tolson and Richie Sandler helping to shut down opposing offenses. Offensively for the Gold Rush, Chris Haylon reached based safely in eight of his nine plate appearances while Connor Blanc and Sandler hit better than .600 over the first four games. Jake Tolson and Dunnigan did the damage when it counted, each collecting seven RBI in the round robin portion of the tournament.

With the No. 1 seed secured, the Gold Rush squared off against Middlebury in the semi-final round and despite winning the previous meeting between the two squads, the Rush wasn’t taking anything for granted after watching Middlebury dominate its prior two games by a score of 24-3.

Newtown got off to a strong defensive start in the top of the first when a two-out single was erased by a great pick-off throw by Blanc to close out the frame. Middlebury was held at bay through two innings as Lengel turned the front end of a double play to erase Middlebury’s second base runner of the game.

Then with two down in the bottom of the second, Michael Greenwood doubled and Austin Puleri followed with an RBI single to put Newtown in front, 1-0. Middlebury’s offense came alive in the top of the fourth, but a great running catch deep in the left-centerfield gap by Timmy Wilder helped control the damage. By the time the third out was recorded, Newtown found itself trailing for the first time in the tournament, 3-1.

The Gold Rush answered right back in the bottom of the frame, though, when Sean Connolly led off and sparked a rally that saw seven consecutive batters reach base. Clutch base hits by Greenwood and Blanc helped put Newtown back on top, 6-3.

Middlebury wasn’t about to go quietly, and in the top of the fifth it scored twice to draw within one. Newtown’s defense held in the top of the sixth and with the score still 6-5, Newtown earned the right to advance to the championship game against Woodbury.

In the top of the first of that game, Woodbury managed to load the bases up, but Wilcox recorded his third strikeout of the game to keep Woodbury off the scoreboard. Haylon then led off the bottom of the first with a single and after stealing two bases, Lengel knocked him in to put Newtown on top, 1-0.

Wilcox struck out the side again in the second to keep Woodbury off the board and then the Gold Rush added to its lead by scoring two runs in the bottom of the third on base hits by Greg Frattaroli and Wilder.

But Newtown quickly found itself in a battle when Woodbury broke through in the top of the fourth, pushing two runs across to pull within one at 3-2. The locals scored once in the bottom of the fourth and added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth to push their lead to 5-2, but with the heart of the Woodbury order due up, things quickly turned interesting.

Woodbury managed to put runners on second and third with two outs and the clean up hitter heading to the plate. But the sharp Newtown defense came through with the game on the line when Dunnigan made a diving stab on a sharply hit ball back to the mound, making the throw to first from his knees for the final out, securing the win and completing the sweep for Newtown.

The Gold Rush will resume action in the Brookfield Jimmy Fund tournament, riding a wave of confidence and hoping to bring home a second tournament championship.

14-Year-Old All Stars –

The comeback kids strike again.

Facing a three-run deficit in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 14-year-old All Stars rallied back to defeat Fairfield, 9-3. It was the locals’ second consecutive come-from-behind win.

Francis Oggeri started the inning with a base hit and moved to second when Jared Modzelewski was issued a free pass. Then Nick Urso put the rally into high gear with a gargantuan two-run triple. Jake Burg then drove in Urso with a single to tie the score, 3-3.

But Newtown was not finished in the inning. Joe Greenfield collected a hit, Ryan Clark doubled, Tucker LaPak doubled, and Wilson Davidson singled.

When all was said and done, the locals had batted around and had taken a 9-3 lead.

Greenfield pitched four strong innings while Clark finished up in the final three, a nice accomplishment since Clark had broken his hand two months ago while catching for the Newtown High School junior varsity baseball team.

Kyle DiNicola, Urso and Greg Larnerd led the defense in the infield while Walter Murphy, Oggeri, Modzelewski, Burg and LaPak all made nice plays in the field. Urso and Greenfield powered the offense with two hits apiece.

The locals will play a doubleheader on Saturday against Redding as a warm-up for the District Tournament the following weekend.