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I-84 Champs! ... Warriors Earn Summer League Victory

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I-84 Champs! ... Warriors Earn Summer League Victory

Reeling off their seventh, eighth, and ninth straight victories, the Newtown Warriors baseball team went undefeated in the Babe Ruth playoffs and became the first Newtown team to win the championship of the I-84 Summer Baseball Travel League.

The victories completed a memorable season for the 15U/14U club. The Warriors overcame some changes after players left Babe Ruth baseball at the beginning of season. The remaining Warriors’ players bonded into a cohesive, confident squad that captured the title over 16 other Connecticut teams.

The road to the championship wasn’t an easy one for the Warriors, who finished the season with an 18-9-1 overall record. The Warriors had to travel in the playoffs to the home fields of Stamford and New Milford, two higher-ranked teams that finished in first place in the league’s West and East divisions with a combined 25-6 regular-season record.

Newtown upset Stamford, 7-5, on the night of July 30 to win the West Division Championship and then beat East Division champion New Milford, 2-0, on the afternoon of July 31 to win the overall summer league crown. The victories avenged two regular-season losses to the two teams. The Warriors also beat Pomperaug, 9-4, in an opening-round playoff game at Fairfield Hills Field.

In the title game at New Milford’s Volunteer Field, Newtown’s ace starting pitcher, Colton Sposta, and New Milford fireballer Gordon Newkirk were locked in a scoreless duel after three innings.

Newtown’s Max Temple, who made a beautiful one-handed catch in center field to help keep New Milford scoreless, led off the fourth inning with a walk. Brandon Cooper rapped a sharp single to left, and both advanced on a wild pitch.

 With Ben Stoller batting, Newkirk bounced another wild pitch. Temple raced home, and Newkirk rushed to cover the plate. The catcher’s quick toss was too late to nail a sliding Temple, and the throw went wild past Newkirk. Cooper never stopped running from second base and also scored — his 25th run of the season.

Stoller followed with a sharp single to left field and stole second and third bases — his 41st and 42nd stolen bases of 43 attempts during the summer campaign. But Stoller was stranded at third, and Newtown didn’t score another run the rest of the game.

The 2-0 lead, though, was enough for Sposta, a fierce competitor who refused to buckle in the high-pressure game. Sposta retired six of seven batters and blanking the opposition without a hit in the fifth and sixth innings.

In the final half inning, Sposta induced a ground ball to shortstop Eric Sutton, who made a clutch throw to first baseman Stoller to just nip the leadoff batter. The next batter singled sharply down the left field line, one of only four New Milford hits in the game. Left fielder Austin Ekstrom sprinted to the ball and threw a quick strike to second base to keep the runner at first. Sposta rebounded with a blazing fastball to strike out the next hitter. New Milford’s tough leadoff hitter then lifted a towering infield popup. Stoller called for the ball, squeezed it in his big first baseman’s mitt, and Newtown captured the town’s first summer championship. It was the third complete game by Sposta in two weeks. It also was a fitting end for Stoller, who finally won a travel-season title after six consecutive spring and fall championships.  

 The entire Newtown team gave Sposta plenty of support, putting on a memorable fielding exhibition in the title game. Among the highlights were Nicky Sajovic backing up to catch a long blast to center field, catcher Brock Chimileski throwing out a runner trying to steal second and several nifty putouts by Sutton.

Newtown reached the title game after a remarkable victory the previous night at Stamford’s Cubeta Stadium. The Warriors rallied in the seventh inning with two outs and only one strike left in the season.

Leading 5-3, Stamford’s ace pitcher Tyler Kane was one out away from a complete-game victory and a Western Division title when Austin Ekstrom drew a two-out walk. On a 3-2 count, Sposta slapped a grounder to the third baseman who threw the ball into the dirt a few steps to the left of the first baseman. The first baseman failed to scoop the ball, and it bounded into foul territory in right field. Sposta hustled to second, and Ekstrom raced around third. The right fielder sailed a throw to home plate that went high over the catcher’s head and, on the fly, stuck in the backstop fence. The umpires awarded home plate to both runners, tying the game.

Stamford’s coach visited the mound to steady his team, but Newtown’s Cooper alertly notified his coaches that it was the second visit of the inning. Under league rules, Kane had to be removed, and a relief pitcher had to be brought in. Sajovic walked and stole second and third with Ryan O’Keefe batting. O’Keefe also walked and stole second, but a strikeout left the potential winning runs stranded.

Stamford loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning and appeared on the verge of victory when Newtown had to call its infield and outfield in to try to prevent a run from scoring. The Stamford batter rapped a high grounder toward Newtown relief pitcher Sutton, who jumped and caught the ball. Sutton threw softly to catcher Chimileski, who stepped on home and threw high to first baseman Stoller. The first baseman reached up and caught the ball, keeping the tips of his toes on the base to complete the game-saving double play.

Stamford was demoralized, and Newtown capitalized in the extra eighth inning. Alex Romeo walked to start the inning and scored on three consecutive wild pitches. Temple, Cooper and Sutton also walked to load the bases. Stoller drove in Temple with an RBI walk to give Newtown a 7-5 lead before Stamford escaped the bases-loaded jam on a home-to-first double play and a strikeout.

In the bottom of the inning, Sutton threw sharp-breaking curveballs to strike out Kane, who earlier had hammered two doubles and knocked in four runs. The next batter grounded to first baseman Stoller, and shortstop Sajovic caught a pop fly to record the final out and begin the wild Newtown victory celebration.

Newtown had jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead when Temple singled and Cooper walked, and John Lebinski crushed a long triple down the left field line. But Stamford bounced back for three first-inning runs, highlighted by Kane’s two-RBI double to left.

Newtown’s starting pitcher, Ekstrom, settled down and shut out Stamford for three innings. He left the mound with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, and Kane clubbed a two-RBI double over third base off reliever Sutton to give Stamford a 5-3 lead.

In the Warriors’ opening-round playoff win, Sposta hurled another complete game. The Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead when Sutton singled, Stoller, walked and Lebinski bounced a clutch two-RBI single up the middle. In the third inning, Newtown scored two more runs. O’Keefe rapped a single to left, Temple walked and Cooper hit a slow roller that was thrown away by the pitcher for a two-base error. Temple scored on a wild pitch.

Pomperaug battled back for three fourth-inning runs on four hits and a sloppy defensive play, and tied the score with a run in the sixth inning. But Sposta refused to lose, striking out six of the last 10 batters he faced, and Newtown erupted for five sixth-inning runs to break the tie.

Romeo walked and advanced to third when O’Keefe bunted for a single, and the pitcher threw wildly to first. Romeo scored on a wild pitch, and O’Keefe scored after Cooper blasted an RBI double over the center fielder’s head. Stoller put the game on ice by blasting a two-RBI double to left, stealing third and scoring when the throw went into left field.

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