By Kim J. Harmon

Now that school has started, there are a lot of young kids in Newtown who can relax.

After all, what is learning math and science compared to kind of competition these kids faced almost every day this summer as they brought three – yes, three – New England Regional championships home to Newtown?

Got that? Five different teams qualified for the New England Regionals and three brought home trophies.

Wow.

The big story, obviously, is the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 10-year-old All Stars going all the way to the Cal Ripken World Series in Vincennes, Indiana, and winning two games before bowing out to the eventual champion from Jacksonville, Florida.

“We’re a little bummed it’s over and a little excited it’s over,” manager Bill Kneisel said after the Blaze returned home. “It was a blast, an amazing run.”

It was the second New England Regional championship in a row for the Blaze and, like last year when the kids were nine, an early loss seemed to be the tonic they needed to storm through the District, State and New England Tournaments.

The Blaze lost twice to Southbury in the District tournament (once in the round robin and once in the final round), but struggled through to the finals where they beat Southbury and advanced to the state tournament.

Then they found the groove.

Wins over Cheshire, Danbury, Brookfield and West Norwalk (that last one, a 2-0 extra-inning affair) propelled the Blaze into the New England Regionals where they dominated the competition and defeated Vermont, Western Massachusetts and New Hampshire (twice) to earn a trip to the Cal Ripken World Series.

There, the Blaze found another, much higher level of competition.

But they could still compete.

After an opening loss to Clovis, California, the Blaze came back to defeat Little Rock, Arkansas, and Olympia, Washington, before finally seeing the dream season come to an end with a loss to Fort Caroline out of Jacksonville, Florida.

The team could pitch, hit and field and it was deep. And now Ryan Tita, Sean Burson, Sean Ross, Oliver Powers, Ryan Powers, Chris Tenney, Jack Kneisel, William Arndt, Dom Fedak, Austin Bonadio, Curtis Droniak and Colin Morris have memories that will last for quite a long time.

But this run is hardly over … not for the Blaze and not for Newtown baseball in general.

“I think we have a system in place (in Newtown) where the kids are really developing early,” said Kneisel. “It’s been a real good, fun run. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Perhaps next year the 10-year-olds will see what it’s like going to three consecutive New England Regional Tournaments … like the 11-year-olds did.

The Newtown 11s won a New England Regional title (in Cheshire) as 9-year-olds and reached the finals (in Rhode Island) as 10-year-olds before bowing out. This summer (in Maine), the 11s – who boast a 45-9 record over the last three years – earned their second New England Regional championship.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” said manager Michael Lynch after the team returned home. “Their expectations were high and it was nice to see them succeed.”

The locals started out the summer season with a bang, securing victories in the Bethel tournament over Greenwich (15-2) and Bethwood (11-0). But the bats went silent as Newtown fell out of the tourney with consecutive losses to New Canaan (4-1) and Greenwich (11-0). 

The 11s regrouped heading into the district tournament, reaching their stride in the round-robin format and winning three of four before defeating Southbury twice in the best-of-three final to win the championship. In the states, Newtown scrapped and clawed to win its first two games against New Britain (7-4) and Greenwich (3-0) before defeating Southbury (8-2) to move into the championship game.

Newtown and Southbury met one more time in the finals, where the locals won 8-5 to qualify for the New England Regionals in Harrison, Maine.

After slipping past Nashua, New Hampshire (5-3), and pounding Marblehead, Massachusetts (11-0), the 11s completed a sweep of their New England competition with a 12-2 win over Nashua North, New Hampshire (12-2), and another – but much closer – win over Marblehead (3-2).

If the locals could put one more New England Regional championship together – and that will be the goal – then a Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 12-year-old All Star team would find itself in the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Maryland in 2005.

They could only hope.

There are a lot of possibilities for the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 9-year-old All Star team, too, which captured its first New England Regional championship with wins over Rhode Island (10-1), Maine (12-2) and Massachusetts (4-0 and 10-1). Through the District, State and New England tournaments the Bombers won 14 consecutive games.

Like their 10-year-old counterparts, the Bombers lost a game early in the summer – this one in the Bethel Tournament – that served to sharpen their focus for the longer run.

Now, softball did not produce any New England Regional champions, but success was still abundant.

The U14 travel team amassed 19 wins, reached the semi-finals of the Connecticut Babe Ruth Tournament, finished second in the CVFL (Connecticut Valley Fast Pitch League), were undefeated in the CVFL Tournament before rain canceled the rest of the tournament, and went 2-2 in the ‘A’ Bracket of the New Jersey Summer Storm Invitational Tournament (one of those losses was a narrow 3-1 decision to the South Jersey Breakers, the 62nd-ranked team in the nation).

The Hawks batted .325 as a team this summer with 234 hits (50 doubles, nine triples, two home runs) and produced 187 runs (seven runs per game). Leading the charge was Kelley Tenney (30 hits, 12 for extra bases and a team-high 26 RBIs) and Val Nezvesky (team-high 31 hits, 10 for extra base hits, with a team-high 26 runs scored).

Other solid offensive contributions at the plate came from Katie Schmidt (26 hits, 21 runs scored), Rachel Nicolosi (25 hits, 23 runs scored), Stacey Broughton and Jen Blauvelt (21 hits apiece), Jaclyn Van Waalwijk (19 hits, 10 RBIs), Sarah Greenfield (12 hits, seven for extra bases), Melissa Fracker (18 hits, 20 runs scored), Joanna Barry (17 hits, 19 runs scored), Mariale Renna (nine hits, eight RBIs), Nicole Alberico (seven hits, nine RBIs) and Ashlee Ross (three RBIs).

Nicole Cunningham’s offensive contributions were unfortunately limited due to an early season (after just the second game of the season) arm injury that prevented her from playing the remainder of the season.

Defensively, the Hawks allowed just four runs per game while the pitching staff accumulated a 3.45 ERA. Stacy Broughton (9-4. 2.44 ERA) gave up just 28 hits while facing 301 batters while Mariale Renna (7-2, 2.05 ERA) struck out 94 of 271 batters she faced. And Jen Blauvelt (3-2) struck out 57 of the 190 batters she faced.

In the field, Tenney led the team in putouts at first base. Nezvesky (shortstop) and Nicolosi (second base) combined for 134 putout/assists. And while Barry was solid at third base with a .925 fielding percentage, Schmidt and Fracker did a fine job sharing the catching duties as they threw out 16-of-26 (62%) baserunners trying to steal.

All of that is a lot, but certainly not all of the success enjoyed this summer.

The Newtown Babe Ruth Softball U12 travel team qualified for a spot in the New England Regional Tournament in Stamford and made it all the way to the finals before bowing out to Stamford (5-0) after a brutal, five-hour rain delay.

The Hawks opened with a win over New Hampshire (4-0) and came back to defeat Rhode Island (3-1). A loss to Stamford (3-2) dropped the Hawks into the loser’s bracket, where they defeated New Hampshire again (6-3) to reach the tournament finals. A win over Stamford (3-1) extended the finals, but the Hawks had nothing left in the tank.

Around the same time, the Newtown Babe Ruth Softball U10 travel team qualified for a spot in the New England Regional Tournament in Lancaster, New Hampshire, and earned a fourth-place finish. An early loss to Massachusetts (9-4) had the Hawks in the loser’s bracket, where they defeated New Hampshire (9-5). A loss to Stamford ended the tournament – and the summer – for the U10 Hawks.

Now, with all that hard work behind them homework is going to be a breeze.