Newtown Blazes Way To Third Straight New England Regional Title
Newtown Blazes Way To Third Straight New England Regional Title
By Kim J. Harmon
SOUTHBURY â A 33-5 record is not enough to say a baseball team is the most prolific winning team in New England.
But if that 33-5 record (with 24 wins in a row to close out the summer) comes from a schedule mixed with 11-year-old teams (17-0) and 12-year-old teams (16-5) and ends with a third consecutive regional championship then, yes, it certainly can be said that team is the most prolific winning team in New England.
âWe are particularly proud that this team continues to win every tournament it gets in,â said manager Bill Kneisel. âThe level of consistency has been amazing.â
In 2003 it was a 5-0 win over Pembroke, Massachusetts, that gave the Blaze their first regional title.
In 2004 it was a 2-0 win over Keene, New Hampshire, that gave the Blaze their second regional title and sent them on to the Cal Ripken World Series in Vincennes, Indiana.
And in 2005 â at Ewald Park in Southbury â it was an 8-0 win over Keene, New Hampshire, that gave the Blaze their seemingly unprecedented third consecutive regional title. It was the 33rd win in a long and fruitful summer.
âThe kids are extremely businesslike and unflappable,â said Kneisel. âWe are very intense and we donât take anything for granted. We are relentless in our preparation.â
And all of that helped the Blaze cruise through the 2005 New England Regional tournament.
Cruising
The Blaze rolled to wins over Burlington, Massachusetts (10-0), Cranston, Rhode Island (9-4), and Keene, New Hampshire (11-0) early in the tournament to set the stage for the final game (or final games) last Friday at Ewald Park.
Tita got the Blaze off to the right start in the bottom of the first when he smashed a 3-1 pitch off the batting cages behind the left field fence (an estimated 255-foot shot). But when Oliver Powers singled and was caught trying to stretch that single into a double and the Blaze went quietly out in the first and second innings a little tension began to grow in the air.
Newtown pitcher Curtis Droniak allowed a lead off single and walked a batter in the first inning and then allowed a single in the second inning, but with a cool mixture of hard fastballs and dazzling curveballs he whiffed four batters through the first three innings and kept Keene at bay.
That allowed the Blaze to finally break the game open in the bottom of the third.
Tita led off with a walk, but was erased at second after an error and fielderâs choice by the Keene centerfielder on an Oliver Powers flyball. After Ryan Powers popped out to second it appeared as if the Blaze were once again going to go quietly.
But Sean Burson singled to right, moving Colin Morris (in to run for O. Powers) to second. A wild pitch pushed both runners up a base and then Casey Tenney â who had already belted two grandslams in the tournament â ripped a 2-1 pitch over the centerfield fence for a three-run homer to stake the Blaze to a 4-0 lead.
Austin Bonadio came on in relief in the fourth and set Keene down 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts (and a great sprawling catch by Morris) and then the Blaze tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the frame to take a 7-0 lead.
First, Sean Ross singled. Then Will Arndt laid down a bunt single which â adding in an error on the first baseman â put runners on second and third. After Keene recorded the first out, Tita followed with his second home run of the game (and his 16th of the summer), a three-run shot over the centerfield fence.
In the top of the fifth, Arndt made a couple of fine catches in centerfield after Keene had put two runners on. In the bottom of the fifth, the Blaze threatened again and loaded the bases on singles by Burson (right to the base of the fence) and Bonadio and a walk to Tenney.
But the locals could only score one as Burson raced home from third on a wild pitch.
Tita came on in relief in the top of the sixth and shut the door on Keene with some high heat and a nice offspeed pitch.
Keene, New Hampshire, lost only four times in the summer of 2005 and the blame for three of those (one in New Hampshire) rests squarely on the shoulders of the Blaze. The Blaze won the regional title, but had to beat the next best team in New England to do it.
Strong Competition
The Blaze participated in a 13-team, 12-year-old league in the Westchester/Putnam Baseball Association (WPBA) and put together a second-place record of 13-3. In a 12-year-old Memorial Day Tournament, the locals made it all the way to the semifinals before falling, 3-0, to the Newtown 12-year-old All Star team.
Along the way in the tournament, the Blaze defeated last yearâs top 11-year-old team from Westchester, 13-0.
In late June, the locals traveled to Keene, New Hampshire for a two-day tournament and against top teams from New Hampshire (Keene and Nashua) and Massachusetts (Marlboro and Hudson) they went 4-0 while out-scoring opponents 30-8.
The locals are 53-6 over the last three years against teams in their own age group (two of those in the World Series last year) and 78-13 overall and have won 12 tournaments.
Next year, the Blaze â obviously â will have their sights set on another trip to the Cal Ripken World Series.
âAfter the Series last year,â said Kneisel, âwe were absolutely talking about this being a two-year plan to get back to the World Series.â
But at the 12-year-old level, the World Series also features international competition (this year, teams from Mexico, Australia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and the Republic of Korea are all participating in Aberdeen, Maryland).
Now, what an experience that could be.