The defending South-West Conference champion softball team - Newtown High School - fell behind 4-0 before coming to bat in the first inning, and trailed 6-3 in the fifth inning before rallying to defeat sixth-seeded New Milford 8-6 in the SWC tournament semifinals, at Stratford's DeLuca Field on May 25.

With the win, the second-seeded Nighthawks will go for a second straight conference crown when they take on No. 1 Pomperaug of Southbury (an 8-1 winner over No. 4 Masuk of Monroe in the other semifinal) in the pinnacle matchup, Thursday, May 26, also at DeLuca Field; first pitch is set for 7 pm.

Down three runs in the fifth, the Nighthawks scored four times to seize a 7-6 lead. Katie Laaksonen's sacrifice fly made it a 6-4 game, and Mali Klorczyk's two-run single knotted the score. Kamdynn Moroney's RBI double put Newtown ahead.

The Nighthawks tacked on an insurance run in the sixth as Sarah Kennedy smacked an RBI double.

Laaksonen had two hits and a pair of runs batted in, Haley Ryan scored three times, and Kennedy went 4-for-4 with a couple of RBI. Kennedy also pitched and struck out 15 batters.

The Hawks defeated Joel Barlow of Redding 12-0 in the quarterfinal round.

Newtown and Pomperaug split a pair of regular-season meetings, with the road teams winning each time. Both squads posted 12-1 records in SWC play, but Pomperaug won the tiebreaker, earning the top seed, because it beat Newtown in the second meeting between the schools, which counted in the conference standings.