Harry Eppers singled home the game-winning run, in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Newtown High School's baseball team walked off against visiting the Bethel Wildcats, 6-5, on April 18.The Bee.

This marked the fourth consecutive time the South-West Conference rivals have decided a regular-season contest with a last at bat hit; Newtown blanked Bethel 8-0 in last year's conference championship game.

Bethel walked off with a 7-6 victory earlier this season. The teams split a pair of last-at bat dramatics, with the home lineup coming out on top both times, last spring.

"We play each other very well. They've got a great team. They don't give up," Newtown Coach Ian Thoesen said. "Our guys are resilient."

Newtown saw Bethel erase a 4-0 deficit for the second time this campaign. The Wildcats, in this most recent meeting, plated five runs in the top of the fifth to take the lead. The Nighthawks answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth to set up the game-winning rally in the final frame.

Josh Taylor led off the bottom of the seventh with a first-pitch blast of a double to right-center field; Ben Harrison bounced a single through the left side to put runners on the corners; and Eugene Citrano was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs.

Eppers stepped up and delivered a two-strike ground ball single through the hole on the left side of the infield, plating Taylor to end the game.

The Nighthawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Citrano smacked a two-run single and Rob Murray worked a bases-loaded walk to force in a run.

Newtown made it 4-0 in the second inning on Harrison's RBI double.

The Wildcats were stymied by Newtown pitcher Kyle Roche for most of the afternoon. Roche struck out the first three batters he faced, along with the last three to come to bat for Bethel, and also struck out the side to work around an infield single in the fourth. Roche finished with ten strikeouts, allowed four hits and two walks, and just two earned runs.

Bethel capitalized on a hit batter, two walks, two hits, and an error for a five-run fifth.

In the last of the fifth, Eppers had a two-out double to deep center field, and Luke Melillo drove in pinch runner Sam Smith with a double to left-center.

Roche rebounded nicely with a quick one-two-three sixth inning before fanning the side in the seventh to earn the win.

Read more about the Newtown-Bethel rivalry in the April 27 print edition of