By Steve Bigham

BROOKFIELD – Pam Mazzarella of Brookfield was a one-woman wrecking crew against Newtown Tuesday afternoon in the South-West Conference quarter-finals.

In addition to throwing a perfect game, the junior giant, who stands 6-2, also ripped an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the second-seeded Bobcats to a 1-0 win over the seventh-seeded Nighthawks. It was the third 1-0 loss of the season for Newtown, which has now gone 122/3 innings without a hit and 14 innings without getting its leadoff batter on.

“You’re not going to make anything happen in this league doing that,” said coach Paul LaFrancesca, who credited the Brookfield pitcher for her domination. “It’s just that the girls are in a funk. I don’t think they have the right frame of mind right now.”

At times, Tuesday’s game at Iroquois Field looked like it might go through the night as Newtown pitcher Cathy Byrne also dominated. The senior, who last week broke the school’s all-time strikeout record, had her A-game going, too. She finished with 13 strikeouts, but she gave up a one out walk to Sarah Lutz in the sixth and Mazzarella followed with a rope to left center field. Center fielder Jamie Lindquist did a good job of running down the ball, nearly nailing Mazzarella at third. However, Lutz managed to score on the play – the only run of the game.

Newtown (12-8) put little pressure on the Brookfield defense, failing to get a ball out of the infield.

Brookfield was scheduled to face Foran in one of two semifinal games Wednesday night at DeLuca Field in Stratford. Lauralton Hall will face Jonathan Law in the other semifinal. The finals were slated for Thursday night.

Asked why he didn’t choose to bunt in an effort to get a body on base, LaFrancesca said the move was simply not in the cards.

“I didn’t have them bunt because I wanted to show them that I have confidence in them. Plus, we don’t have much speed, so I’m not going to have somebody bunt just for the sake of bunting,” he said. “I still think I’ve got seven girls who can hit as well as anybody, but me believing in them doesn’t seem to be helping.”

Newtown closed out the regular season Monday with a 4-0 loss at Lauralton Hall in Milford. Hall is the state’s top-ranked team and Byrne and company kept it close for much of the way.

“The game should have been 0-0 going into the bottom of the sixth, but it was 2-0 because we gave them two unearned runs in the third. The only reason they scored (two runs in the sixth) was they had three walks in the inning. There’s no way three batters should have walked. It was a combination of the umpires and the wet conditions,” LaFrancesca said.

Byrne and Andrea Rustine had Newtown’s only two hits.

Lauralton Hall’s freshman pitcher, Laura Schack, picked up the win.

“We hit the ball harder in the Lauralton game than they did. We didn’t play the defense that we needed to play. If we play a clean game, we’re with the best team in the state,” said LaFrancesca, who must now prepare his squad for the CIAC class LL tournament, which gets underway next Tuesday.

Lauralton Hall played a double-header Monday, following up its win over Newtown with a win over Bethel, knocking the Wildcats out of the playoff race.

On May 18, Byrne blew a fastball by a Kolbe Cathedral batter for the final out in the third inning. The strikeout was Byrne’s 600th and it officially broke the record held previously by her older sister, Sam, who was on hand for the game.

Newtown won the game 11-1 to secure a berth in the SWC playoffs. Seniors Lauren McCusker and Kristen Bandura each had two hits and two RBIs in the win, while freshman Brittany Hutchinson doubled in two runs. Junior Kristin Caposella also drove in a pair of runs.

Byrne finished with 13 strikeouts and now has 634 for her career.

LaFrancesca is banking on some improved hitting for the state tournament.

“If these bats ever get hot, this is the time to do it. We are going to work on our offense the next four days and hopefully make some noise in the states,” he said.

With Byrne on the mound, anything can happen.