U10 Hawks Fourth At New England Regionals

The Connecticut State Champion Newtown Hawks U10 softball team finished fourth in the New England Regional Tournament. The Hawks began tourney play with a 3-1 win over New Hampshire’s state champ, the Rochester Slammers last Friday.  Newtown’s Gillian Galante pitched well. She had five strikeouts, allowed one walk and induced 12 infield put-outs, facing only three batters over the minimum in six innings. The offense managed to scratch out a run at a time during three innings. Mikayla Kuligowski put down a two-out bunt for a single in the third inning and scored on a double by Caitlyn Linden. In the fourth, the Hawks added another run as Galante, who reached base on a fielder’s choice, stole second, advanced to third on Katie Laaksonen’s single and scored on an error. An insurance run was added in the fifth when Linden reached base on an error, stole second and was knocked in on Shannon Mullins’ single.

On Saturday, the Hawks lost 5-3 to the Salem, N.H. Cyclones. Kuligowski had five strikeouts and only one walk in the contest but Newtown was held to one hit, off the bat of Haley Ryan.

Entering the loser’s bracket, the girls had an hour to prepare for a must-win game. Coach Frank Galante presented the team with new, gold stirrup “lucky” socks to replace their standard blue stirrups. The Hawks responded with an 8-6 win over Monadnock, N.H. Kuligowski walked, stole second and third and scored on fielder’s choice ground ball off the bat of Mullins for a 1-0 lead. In the second inning, the Hawks broke out for four runs. Walks by Kathryn Kerins and Gillian Galante and an infield single by Laaksonen to loaded the bases. Kerins stole home and Ryan walked to load the bases again. Lauren Wilcox hit a bases-clearing triple to right field to score three more runs. The Hawks added two more runs in the third. Emily Woznick walked and was replaced by pinch runner Kelly Merrick who scored on Kerins’ ground ball. Later in the game, Kerins knocked in the Hawks’ final run, scoring Kuligowski from third on a single. Galante had three strikeouts and two walks.

In a rematch with Rochester, N.H., in their third game of the day, the Hawks lost 11-1. The Hawks were fourth among 10 teams and won 24 games this season. The team was coached by Frank Galante, Mark Kuligowski and Stacey Laaksonen.