Newtown Sluggers Lead Western CT

Five Newtown players — Michael Allwein, Ben Stoller, Eric Pisani, Brandon Cooper and Bobby Archiere — played big roles in leading Western Connecticut to a 12-9 victory over a Stamford all-star team at Fairfield Hills Field on Sunday. The game was a warm-up before the 19U Senior Babe Ruth state tournament for Western Connecticut, a team comprising top players from Newtown, Danbury, and Pomperaug.

Stamford jumped out to a 4-0 lead on four unearned runs. Western Connecticut answered with two first-inning runs. Steve Zielinski ripped a single, Stoller walked, and both advanced on stolen bases. They scored on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Pisani settled down on the mound and hurled three shutout innings.

Western Connecticut took a 5-4 lead in the second inning after Pisani, Archiere, and Negron drew consecutive walks. Zielinski, who played for Immaculate High School’s varsity, crushed a two-RBI double down the left field line. B.J. Nimer, Danbury High School’s starting center fielder before graduating last year, hit an RBI single. Western added a single run in the third inning. Allwein, Newtown High School’s varsity catcher in the spring, drilled a double and later scored on a wild pitch. Western added three fourth-inning runs to take a 9-4 lead. Garron Negron, who plays for Monroe Community College in New York, and Zielinski singled. Stoller slammed an RBI double over the center fielder’s head. Nimer and Alex Johnson, Abbott Tech’s former star, followed with RBI sacrifice flies.

Nonnewaug High School’s Mac Leeper relieved Pisani and yielded an unearned run in the fifth. He ran into trouble in the sixth, walking three and giving up a single. Allwein relieved and put out the fire, but Stamford scored four times to tie the score at 9-9. Western won the game in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs. Allwein ripped a single, his third hit of the game. Leeper reached on a fielder’s choce that retired Allwein, and Cooper, who had singled earlier in the game, walked. Archiere lined a clutch, two-out, two-RBI single to left field, and Negron knocked in Archiere with a single.

Western, which was saving its top pitchers for the state tourney, sent Allwein, who has rarely pitched in recent years, back to the mound in the seventh inning. He retired three consecutive batters for the save.

State Tourney

Western Connecticut 16, Greenwich 6: Western Connecticut exploded for 13 third-inning runs and pounded out 15 hits in six innings before the ten-run rule halted play in the opening round of the state tournament, Monday at Stamford’s Cubeta Stadium.

The amazing offensive assault was against Ryan Callahan, a varsity pitcher on Greenwich High School’s incredible 23-2 team this past spring. Callahan surrendered the first 14 runs before being knocked out in the third inning. The win advanced Western Connecticut to a second-round match-up against Stamford, which beat West Haven, 2-0. Western Connecticut, which includes Newtown’s Michael Allwein, Ben Stoller, Alex Saviano, Alex Lapinski, Eric Pisani, Brandon Cooper and Bobby Archiere, took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Danny Coakley singled, and Garron Negron and Allwein walked before Alex Johnson knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly. In the second inning, Stoller reached on an infield single and stole second but was later forced at home plate, and Western didn’t score.

On the mound, Johnson blew his 90 mph fast ball past hitter after hitter, throwing three shutout innings and striking out seven. In the bottom of the third inning, Western sent 17 batters to the plate, slapping seven hits and capitalizing on numerous Greenwich errors. Newtown players contributing to the 13-run barrage were Stoller, who lined a single to right and advanced to second when the ball skipped past the right fielder; Allwein, who walked, and Lapinski, who was hit by a pitch to knock in a run. With Western ahead 14-6 in the fifth inning, Cooper crushed a double over third base but was stranded at second. In the sixth inning, Western ended the game by scoring two runs. Pisani walked, Johnson singled and Gary Braun walked to load the bases. Stoller knocked in a run by drawing a walk, and Mac Leeper slashed a single to left to invoke the mercy rule.