Rangers Baseball Update

The Newtown Rangers, a U13-15 fall baseball team, defeated Ridgefield Two and the town rival Newtown Pirates this week. Game highlights are as follows:

Rangers 12, Ridgefield Two 1: The Rangers erupted for 10 fourth-inning runs to break open a close game Sunday at Ridgefield’s Playground Field. Key hits during the rally were a double by Brock Chimileski and RBI singles by Eric Pisani, Miles LoBuglio and Max Lopez. Jon Hull played a spectacular game at shortstop, diving to his left to corral the ball on a smash up the middle and flawlessly fielding a ball that took a high hop at the last second. At catcher, Hull also started a rare double play in the final inning. He threw to third baseman Chimileski, who tagged out a runner attempting to steal. Chimileski then threw to shortstop Garrison Buzzanca, who tagged out the runner on the back end of an attempted double steal. The Rangers’ defense, which made no errors for the first time this season, also came up big in the fourth inning. Hull threw to third baseman Brandon Cooper, who made a nifty tag to erase another runner trying to steal third. Later in the inning, right fielder Lopez fielded a single and threw a strike to cutoff man Buzzanca who turned and threw to Cooper to nail a sliding base runner trying to go from first to third. Ranger pitchers Parker Lintz, John Hampford and Max Temple limited the opposition to four hits. Hampford struck out the side in the third inning, mixing up a fast ball and a new pitch, a sharp-breaking curve ball. The Rangers improved to 4-0.

Rangers 9, Newtown Pirates 6: The Rangers scored 4 second-inning runs to bounce back from a 2-1 deficit and never lost the lead Saturday at Fairfield Hills Field. Key moments during the inning were a long double to center field by Brandon Cooper, an RBI single by Miles LoBuglio, an RBI hit-by-pitch by Eric Pisani and RBI groundouts by Max Temple and Max Lopez. The Rangers struck first in the all-local affair, when Kyle Wilcox reached second on two first-inning errors and was driven home on a line-drive single to center field by Ben Stoller. The Pirates responded with two runs. Tom Floros drilled a double down the right field line to score Nicky Sajovic and Anthony Maki. With the Rangers ahead 5-3 in the fifth inning, Garrison Buzzanca put down a perfect bunt single and moved to second on an error. Stoller grounded an RBI single hit threw the hole in left field to score Buzzanca. Stoller and LoBuglio each had two hits; Wilcox drilled a double down the left field line in the third inning, and teammates Cooper, Parker Lintz and Ryan Pisani each scored two runs. Both teams made magnificent fielding plays. Pirates’ center fielder Maki made a a no-bounce throw to home plate to catcher Justin DeVellis to cut down a sliding Stoller in the first inning. In the sixth inning, the Pirates’ Alex Lapinski ripped a

ground double down the left field line. Third baseman Cooper raced into left field, picked up the ball and threw a strike to second baseman Ryan Pavlicek to nail the runner with a nice tag. Pavlicek made another defensive gem two batters later. Center fielder John Hampford ran down a single up the gap in right center, threw perfectly to cutoff man Pavlicek, who wheeled and threw an accurate one-hop throw to catcher Brock Chimileski. The ball took a bad bounce but Chimileski stayed with it, grabbing it and sweeping a tag to nail the runner, Dan Harrison. Ranger pitchers Buzzanca, Jon Hull and Ben Stoller held the Pirates to three hits. Hull pitched four strong innings, yielding just one unearned run, walking none and striking out five batters.