In an effort to keep their respective teams playing in the midst of a decline in squad representation, the Newtown and Bethel women’s summer softball leagues combined in June, played out the season schedule — culminating with the August 12 championship game at Treadwell Park — and the consensus was that the new arrangement is a successful one that will continue going forward.

Newtown league directors Nina Ricciardi and Leigh Libero, along with Bethel league President Michelle Haber watched as representatives from each town squared off in the title game. In the end, second seed Putnam House of Bethel defeated top seed Forest Construction of Newtown 13-1.

Forest Construction earned regular-season bragging rights but Putnam House jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening inning of the championship clash and never looked back.

Popper Olszewski hit a two-run triple in the top of the fifth inning to spark the Putnam House offense. The defense was sharp, highlighted by a textbook relay from Sherry Senger to Christina Ferenz to Olszewski for a tag play at third base in the bottom of the third inning.

Forest Construction scored its run in the second inning when Jahna Nixon and Chrissy Clark singled, and Laura Nelson hit an RBI single. Mallory Knutson belted a triple in the sixth. Several hard-hit balls by the top seed found the gloves of the defense.

“Fun to reunite with old friends until they beat you,” Forest Construction’s Laura Nelson said lightheartedly. Nelson played in the Bethel league with several players from the Putnam House lineup for eight years.

Definitely better than playing with four teams,” Forest Construction player Chris Jannott said of the merger.

There was some compromise to make things work between the two town leagues this summer. During this past regular season, when teams had roster issues the Bethel and Newtown squads would share players with each other to ensure games could be played. There is familiarity between representatives from the two leagues. Putnam House pitcher Ashley Dibble, in fact, coached Libero’s daughter, Joey in youth softball years ago.

Newtown had four teams and Bethel fielded five, both down from previous years. Newtown’s representatives, in addition to Forest Construction were Castle Hill Chocolate, NewSylum Brewing, and Dental Associates. Bethel’s teams that joined Putnam House were The Athlete’s Source, Famous Pizza, Quality Gem, and Caraluzzi’s.

“We knew that eventually another team would drop out of Newtown and we wouldn’t be able to play,” Ricciardi said.

After all, with just three teams it would trim down the competition and be quite a juggling act to fill slots and keep teams playing. With five representatives from Bethel making it a nine-team league there was plenty of competition. The odd number of squads meant one team could not play on a given day but teams rotated the off days.

“We are just trying to keep the two leagues afloat,” Haber said. “We weren’t sure how many teams we would have. I think it’s worked great. I’ve gotten really positive feedback.”

“It’s been successful. I think it’s nice to do the home and away thing. There’s more competition and we play in different spots,” Ricciardi said.

Games were played at Treadwell and Dickinson Park and some of Bethel’s fields, none of which have lights. The combining of the leagues gave Bethel teams a chance to play under the lights.

Merging of the leagues meant some adjustments to rules and schedules. Newtown was previously a Monday-Wednesday league and switched to Bethel’s Monday-Thursday system.

Bethel brought its use of a home plate mat to the league. The mat helps umpires call balls and strikes. Previously, Newtown used umpires only.

Another change was in the scoring policy. Previously, the Newtown-only league had a cap of ten runs scored by one team in an inning and a 15-run lead after five innings meant the game would be called two innings early. Now there is no maximum that can be scored in a frame and the mercy rule is that a game gets called with a differential of 12 runs through five innings.

Thanks to a pair of neighboring towns joining forces the battle to be the best was decided among nine teams rather than just a handful, or, perhaps the seasons for each town were saved.

“I think the general consensus is that it was fun,” Libero said.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.