WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island – On Wednesday, the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 10-and-under All Stars found themselves one win away from reached the New England Regional Tournament championship game and two wins away from advancing to the Cal Ripken World Series in Williamsburg, Virginia.

By winning two of three games over the weekend at River Point Park in West Warwick, Rhode Island, the 10s had advanced to the semi-final game of the New England Regional. At press time, the semi-final (and possibly the final, as well) were slated for Thursday night.

Newtown got off to a sluggish start on Saturday against Norton, Massachusetts, losing 7-3. The locals jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, capped by Daniel Lynch’s two-run, inside-the-park home run, which also scored Richard Andreotta.

But Newtown gave up four runs in the bottom of the inning on two hits, two walks and three errors and they never recovered. Norton added three runs in the bottom of the fifth to complete the scoring.

On Sunday the Newtown bats came alive in an 11-4 win over West Warwick, led by impressive home runs by Brandon Rosenberger and R.J. Roman. Ryan Schmidt, Johnny Fracker and Erik Hoffman also contributed hits and combined for eight stolen bases. Sean Maher pitched three solid innings, teaming with Rosenberger to hold down the West Warwick offense.

Mikey Tobin and Bryan Czel played strong defense games.

And on Monday Newtown put it all together, combining strong pitching and an explosive offense to rout Vermont, 21-0. Brian Reed, Cody Williams, Czel, Fracker and Maher led the scoring barrage. Rosenberger, Roman and Lynch provided the shutout pitching and Schmidt, Hoffman, Andreotta and Tobin all contributed hits to the effort.