Newtown Sluggers Edged In State Quarterfinals

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s baseball team kept swinging — all the way into extra innings of the Class LL State Tournament quarterfinals.

The Nighthawks saw their season come to an end in a nine-inning 13-12 loss to Pomperaug of Southbury in Waterbury on Saturday afternoon. The Nighthawks overcame a five-run deficit to force extra innings, took the lead in extras, but could not hang on as the Panthers got the winning run on a wild pitch.

Pomperaug, the No. 3 team, advanced to — and won — the semifinal round after eliminating No. 6 Newtown.

Evan Noonan had two hits and scored three runs, Bryan Czel had a double and three runs batted in, George Zaruba had two hits and two RBI, Kyle Kromberg singled and tripled and knocked in run, Colby Brown had three hits, including a triple, and Andy Lapple scored three times.

“We battled extremely hard throughout the season to get to the quarterfinals and we were one pitch away; it hurts a lot not so much that we lost, but more because the past three months have been so much fun and you hate to see it come to an end. I am very proud of the way they battled during the Pomperaug game,” Newtown Coach Matt Memoli said.

Newtown advanced to the quarters with a 13-4 win over No. 11 Norwalk in the second round on June 3.

The Nighthawks fell behind 3-0 after the first half inning but bounced back with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Brandon Rosenberger and Zaruba both doubled home runs, and John Fracker tied the game with an RBI single.

In the second, the Nighthawks got an RBI double from Lapple and went ahead 5-3. In the third, the hits — and runs — kept coming. Joe Fedak and Brown both plated runners for a 7-3 advantage. Zaruba knocked in another run in the fourth, and Czel and Rosenberger drove in runs for a 10-3 cushion in the fifth. Dan Milot added an RBI double as part of a three-run sixth as the Hawks put the game well out of reach.

“It definitely is contagious and it’s nice to see guys coming around together at the right time in the season,” Memoli said following the win. “It’s a lot of fun to watch when all of the hard work, and preparation, and dedication just come together on a big stage.”

“It’s been really fun,” Noonan added.

Rosenberger noted that the team strung together several back-to-back extra-base hits en route to scoring in every inning against Norwalk.

Offensive outbursts were regular occurrences for the Hawks throughout this campaign.

“It’s a thrill coming out here every day — definitely,” Czel said.

“It’s just the snowball effect. Everybody’s hitting,” Zaruba added.

Newtown had outstanding pitching from RJ Roman in the win over Norwalk. He tossed a complete game and struck out four batters. He was nearly untouchable after a tough first inning.

“After the first inning I took a deep breath and said, ‘I just have to settle down and pitch my game,’” Roman said. “The bats definitely help. Once you have those runs, you just go out and pitch.”

Newtown will lose a lot of those bats to graduation. Seniors on this year’s team were Fracker, Ryan Schmidt, Zaruba, Lapple, Fedak, Milot, Brown, Kromberg, and Rosenberger.