By Steve Bigham

A huge crowd packed the hillside around the Treadwell Park diamond Wednesday, August 22 to watch Walker Industrial Products capture the Newtown Women’s Softball League title. The 6-2 victory over Huntington Homes ended a 12-0 season for the Walker women.

In the championship, the Walker women rolled behind the pitching of Joanne DiDonato and the hitting and fielding of Sharon Vetrano (3-for-3), whose RBI double highlighted Walker’s three-run first-inning effort.

Huntington Homes did manage 10 hits, including hits from Adrian Dandrea, Missy Desrochers and Patrice Fahey. But Walker always seemed to come up with the big defensive play, the gem coming midway through the game when Vetrano robbed a Huntington Homes hitter of a home run when she snagged a drive deep over her head. Also coming up big defensively for Walker were Lynn Kovac and Diane Lawrence.

Walker added two more runs in the third inning as Kathy Blewett and Marsha Moskowitz delivering key hits.

Huntington Homes battled back with single runs in the fourth and fifth, and Walker added a run in the fifth. The runners up received solid defense from Fawn Schmidt, Jeanne Carney and Lisa Dolyak, who helped to strand 10 Walker base runners.

Walker advanced to the finals with a 9-2 win over The Coolattas in last week’s semifinal. The champs got all the runs they needed in the first inning as they scored five runs on hits by Sue Liss, Jess Shivey and Moskowitz.

The Coolatas closed the score to 7-4 in the third inning on four hits and a pair of walks.

Rose DeSimone filled in for DiDonato on the mound, picking up her only win of the season by digging in down the stretch.

Defensively, Maria Ross led Walker at shortstop, Karen Corkum at first base and Lisen Zaruba in the outfield.

Third-seeded Huntington Homes upset second-seeded Stamford Tent, 5-4, in the other semifinal.

The core group of the Walker team has been in existence since the formation of the league five years ago. They include Connie Caruso, Corkum, Blewett, Moskowitz, DiDonato, Zaruba and Vetrano. They key to their success: we know how to have fun, DiDonato said.

Walker’s coaches are Gene Vetrano, Bob Chiapetta and George Stockwell.

Last year, Walker lost a heartbreaker to Stamford Tent in the championship game on a late-inning error.