The Newtown Wolfpack 12U Little A baseball team finished in second place at the Connecticut State 60 Major Baseball Tournament The Wolfpack won the 11U State Championship last year and represented Connecticut in the Cal Ripken Regional Finals in Rhode Island. This year the team lost 4-2 in the championship game to neighboring Oxford.

The double elimination tournament started July 16 under the lights at Martha Hart Park in New Britain with the Wolfpack playing the host team. Ryan Verdi started on the mound for the Wolfpack and pitched a scoreless first inning. Drew Poseno came in to pitch in the second inning. The Wolfpack managed only two hits in the first three innings and were trailing 3-0 when Verdi put Newtown on the board in the fourth with a homerun. Dan DeBartolomeo led off the inning with a tough at bat before being hit by the pitch. The Pack got the bats going with singles by Sean O'Sullivan, Jackson Kahn, and Stephen Mayer. By the end of the inning, they had scored five runs to take the lead. Poseno closed the game out with three 1-2-3 innings. He had eight strikeouts and only one walk in the 6-3 victory.

Newtown faced Oxford in their second game, on July 17. Verdi again started the game on the mound and struck out the side in the first. Leadoff hitter Kahn singled and scored to give the Wolfpack a 1-0 lead after the first. Brandon Akbas led off the second inning with a homerun and Matt Sortino and Connor Faxon singled and scored to give Newtown a 4-0 lead after two innings. The Oxford bats woke up in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring six runs on five hits, including a homerun. Oxford held on to win 6-4.

The loss meant the Wolfpack had to face Bridgeport in its third game, on July 23. Connor Smith was the starting pitcher and he went four innings, giving up only one hit. That hit, a walk, and some good base running gave Bridgeport a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Newtown's Daniel DeBartolomeo led off the home half of the second inning with a booming double, but the team failed to bring him home. Jackson Kahn drew a leadoff walk in the third and Drew Poseno was hit by a pitch. Head Coach, Dave O'Sullivan, called for a delayed steal and the runners moved up to second and third to set the table for Ryan Verdi who tied the game with a two-RBI single to the fence. Matt Sortino made a diving catch at second base to keep Bridgeport in check in the fourth. Zach Kugler walked to start off the fourth inning then promptly stole second, took third on a passed ball, and then scored on Sean O'Sullivan's sacrifice fly out to centerfield. Connor Smith and Connor Faxon each singled and scored to give the Wolfpack its first lead of the night. The Wolfpack were patient at the plate and blew the game open in the fifth inning sending 11 to the plate and scoring six on a combination of two hits, five walks, and two errors. Jackson Kahn pitched the fifth and six innings to close out the 11-3 win and set up a rematch with Oxford.

In the double elimination format, Newtown had to beat Oxford, on the night of July 23, to force a second game the next day. The Wolfpack took the early lead as Poseno singled and scored in the first to put Newtown up 1-0. In the home half of the inning, Verdi walked the leadoff batter, and the second player hit a line drive right back to Verdi who threw over to Akbas to complete the double play. Verdi took control and had seven strikeouts while only giving up one run in his three innings of work on the mound. The fifth inning began with a walk to Poseno, a single by Verdi, and a walk to Mayer. This set up Akbas with bases loaded and no outs, and he hit a hard ground ball into the shortstop hole that hit the base runner. A likely two-run single turned into one out, bases loaded situation. Kugler hit a hard ground ball that tied up the second baseman and scored Poseno. Then Sean O'Sullivan blew the game open with a two-run double to right center. The Wolfpack again showed its patience at the plate, loading the bases with two walks and a hit by pitch. Mayer's double sealed the win as Newtown scored four in the sixth. Oxford staged a rally in the sixth, but the Wolfpack delivered a 9-3 victory for the fervent fans in attendance.

The win forced a rematch in the championship game on July 24. Pitching dominated the finale as both Oxford's starting pitcher and Newtown's Connor Smith went the distance for complete games. The Wolfpack kept Oxford off the board in the first and took a 1-0 lead by plating Verdi on a wild pitch. Newtown added a run in the second. Smith hit a double, reached third on a wild pitch, and then scored on Connor Faxon's sacrifice. Oxford took the lead in the third with a three-run homerun. Tight defense and good pitching kept the game at 3-2 heading into the sixth inning. Oxford added a run in the sixth and was threatening to add more with the bases loaded and one out. The Wolfpack ended the threat with a key double play from Verdi to Sortino to Akbas to end Oxford's rally. The Wolfpack brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, but Oxford's pitching and defense closed out the game for a 4-2 victory. Oxford will represent Connecticut in this year's Regional Tournament in Chelmsford, Mass.

Parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives packed the stands in their Newtown Wolfpack gear to cheer on the boys throughout the tournament. Jake Hossler, pitcher and first baseman, was a key contributor to the Wolfpack's success all summer, however, he did not play in the state tournament due to injury. The team finished the season with a 14-8-1 record as they wrapped up play in the Summer Travel Baseball Cal Ripken Extreme League.