Newtown Players Help State Baseball Team Win In Babe Ruth Tournament

Four U18 Newtown Lightning baseball players — Will Arndt, Colton Sposta, Gary Braun, and Ben Stoller — were selected to play on the Western Connecticut team in the Connecticut Senior Babe Ruth Tournament.

The Western Connecticut team also comprises players from three other teams (Ridgefield, Danbury, and Torrington). The winner of the double-elimination state tourney moves on to the New England Regional Tournament in New Hampshire. The winner of regionals moves on to the national championship in the state of Washington.

The tournament got underway on July 9 and continues this week. Game highlights are as follows:

Western Connecticut 7, Greenwich 3: Colton Sposta, a 16-year-old Newtown pitcher, outdueled 19-year-old Greenwich southpaw Marty Clarke in the opening game of the state tournament at Naugatuck’s Raymond Legenza Field.

Sposta, who got plenty of support from three other Newtown players — third baseman Will Arndt, first baseman Ben Stoller, and catcher Gary Braun — struck out ten, and scattered six hits in a 117-pitch, complete-game victory.

Arndt played a solid third base and slapped a hard grounder to bring in the first run. First baseman Stoller singled off Clarke, walked, and prevented a run with a scoop for a putout on a bad throw. Braun caught three solid innings behind the plate and held onto two foul tips for strikeouts.

Getting past Clarke and moving to the second round of the state playoffs was quite an accomplishment for the gritty Western Connecticut club. Clarke was undefeated as a freshman starter for Williams College, which finished with a 24-11 record this year. Last year, he was the ace pitcher for Greenwich High School, which finished with an 18-5 record and played in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship, and he also pitched for the Greenwich Cannons Senior American Legion team, which had a 24-7 record. His teammates included varsity players from Greenwich and Brunswick high schools.

Sposta retired the side in order in the first inning before yielding three runs in the next two innings as the Westerners fell behind 3-0. They finally broke through for a run against Clarke in the third inning when Danny Coakley singled, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Arndt’s hard grounder that was booted by shortstop Alex Jonokuchi.

Sposta, who pitched for the Newtown High School junior varsity team last season, then shut out the powerful Greenwich team for the rest of the game, including striking out the side in the fourth on wicked curves and sliders. He twice fanned Clarke, clean-up hitter Sam Auch, and Sam Fraser, who last year played on the Greenwich Cannons team that went to the Final Eight of the Junior American Legion state tournament.

Down 3-1 in the fifth inning, Western Connecticut battled back. With the score finally tied, Sposta didn’t buckle in the sixth inning. Sperry Edwards drilled a line drive off Sposta’s leg, but the shaken pitcher recovered the ball and threw to Stoller for the first out. Sposta was hobbling but refused to leave the game. He struck out Clarke and then yielded a walk and a double to right center. With men on second and third and the game on the line, Sposta struck out the lead-off batter, Fraser, with Braun holding on to the foul tip.

Five long innings of work and too many pitches thrown sent Clarke to the showers, and the Westerners jumped on his replacement, sending nine batters to the plate. Sposta drew a lead-off walk, and Nick Jones blasted a long double to right center. Coakley blooped an RBI single down the left field line, and Rocky Firmin crushed a home run over the left-field fence to clear the bases and give the Westerners a 7-3 lead. Sposta retired the second through fourth batters in the line-up, in order, including the last two on strikeouts. 

 

Housatonic Valley 5, Western Connecticut 1: Looking for an upset, Western Connecticut jumped out to a 1-0 lead after two innings, but defending state champion Housatonic Valley — comprising college and high school varsity players from Shelton and Naugatuck — was too strong, Sunday at Naugatuck’s Raymond Legenza Field.

In the bottom of the inning, Western Connecticut struck for a 1-0 lead against Alex Fresa, who pitches for Western Connecticut State University. Danny Coakley legged out an infield single and scored when Firmin drilled a double to center and the ball was fumbled by the center fielder.

Western Connecticut 16, Southeast Connecticut 13: The Western Connecticut all-star team outslugged Southeast Connecticut, Tuesday night at Naugatuck’s Raymond Legenza Field to advance to the fifth round of the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament as one of only three teams still in title contention.

Against Southeast Connecticut, comprising of top players from the New London, Groton, and Hebron areas, Stoller exploded for three hits and three RBIs, and Arndt crushed a long RBI double to left field. Stoller’s .500 batting average (six hits in 12 at-bats) is second on the team behind Danbury High School star Fermin, who is hitting .545.

Southeast Connecticut was an offensive machine, jumping out to a 4-2 lead after two innings and a 6-4 lead after three innings. But Stoller led off the bottom of the third inning by drilling a base hit into right field, and his teammates batted around with a seven-run-inning explosion. Highlights included Arndt’s double, a two-RBI single by Firmin, and Stoller’s second hit of the inning.

Southeast Connecticut kept battling back, and Western Connecticut needed a three-run sixth inning and a two-run seventh inning to ensure the victory. In the sixth, Stoller knocked in a run with an RBI grounder and runs scored on an error and an RBI double by former Danbury American Legion player Nick Rolen of Brookfield.

In the seventh inning, Torrington’s Ishmael Haimerl ripped a single, and Danbury’s Alex Johnson, one of the state’s top pitchers at Abbott Tech last season, pinch hit a 370-foot home run over the right center fence.Southeast Connecticut rebounded for four seventh-inning runs against a Western Connecticut pitching staff decimated by four games in four consecutive days. Johnson, who had completed a complete game on the mound two days earlier and saved the game the previous day, saved the game again by firing overpowering fast balls to strike out the final two batters.

Western Connecticut 5, Water Oak 1: In the previous game on Tuesday against Water Oak comprised primarily of players from the Watertown High School varsity and Oakville — it was a pitcher’s duel. Western Connecticut led 2-1 until exploding for three runs in the sixth inning and coming away with a 5-1 win.

It was an especially sweet win for the local sluggers, because Watertown is a member of District 4. Before the summer season began, Watertown refused to provide some players to the Western Connecticut team, because it said it had its own powerful team.

But Watertown was stifled by Western Connecticut’s southpaw pitcher Christian Peterson, who shut them out in five of six innings. Peterson scattered five hits and repeatedly escaped jams.

Leading 2-1 in the top of the sixth, Western Connecticut catcher Nick Rolen threw a laser to second baseman Coakley to erase a lead-off batter who had singled. Then center fielder B.J. Nimer, Danbury High School’s star center fielder, raced to pick up a long double and fired to cut-off man Coakley. Coakley wheeled and threw a perfect throw to third baseman Israel Duran, who made a beautiful tag to nail a sliding runner.

Western Connecticut got out of a first-inning jam with a man on second base and no outs when first baseman Stoller raced to the fence to catch a foul popup, and Peterson struck out one batter and got another to fly to left field.

In the bottom of the inning, Danny Coakley grounded a single and later scored on a hit by Arndt for a 1-0 lead. In the top of the third, second baseman Arndt back-pedaled to grab a popup and alertly threw to first for a double play.

In the bottom of the inning, Braun was hit by a pitch, went to third when Nimer blasted a double to right center, and scored on a balk. Stoller, who stroked two hits,, and Ishmael Haimerl fueled the three-run, sixth-inning rally with singles before Torrington’s Steven Peterson pinch hit a two-out two-RBI single. Nimer followed by bombing another long RBI double to center.

District 4 Commissioner Bob Alicea, who has been involved in Babe Ruth baseball for many years, said Tuesday he couldn’t recall when a District 4 team had ever won three state tourney games and advanced to the fifth round. The team was scheduled to play Stamford on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press).