The defending South-West Conference champion Newtown High School softball team was cruising along, winning their fourth game to start the year - 3-1 over host Brookfield on April 13 - when they bumped into old nemesis Masuk of Monroe on April 15. The visiting Nighthawks were beaten 1-0, then blanked 10-0 in a makeup game at St Joseph of Trumbull the next afternoon. The Hawks bounced back with a 7-1 triumph at Pomperaug of Southbury on April 18, then toppled Immaculate of Danbury 13-1 two days later to improve to 6-2 overall.

Against Brookfield, Jill Lasorsa and Mali Klorczyk had RBI hits and Haley Ryan had a single and run scored. Pitcher Lauren Wilcox allowed only three hits and struck out three batters in the win.

Masuk remained unbeaten at 6-0 with the lone run of the game manufactured in the third inning. Rebecca Tillotson singled to right field and was sacrificed to second on Maggie Lebinski's bunt. Alex Bacoulis singled to center and Tillotson slid home safely when she knocked the ball out of the glove of Newtown catcher Mackenzie Macchiarulo. Newtown center fielder Ryan made a nice throw home to nearly nab Tillotson.

In the fifth, Bacoulis nearly drove in another run on a single but Lebinski, who had reached on a two-base error, was tagged out by Macchiarulo after a perfect throw by Newtown left fielder Tess Mubarek.

"They were really, really good throws. One of them I couldn't hold onto," said Macchiarulo, adding that when Newtown got the out on the second nail-biting play at the plate it motivated the team even more to try to win.

Throughout the years, Masuk's pitching has been its strong point. Freshman hurler Samantha Schiebe was solid; she allowed six hits and struck out five batters, but got a little help from the Hawks, Newtown Coach Bob Guererra believed. Schiebe ended the game with a strikeout with the bases loaded, one of Newtown's many squandered opportunities.

"We couldn't get anything going. We did not make them make a tough play. We didn't put any pressure on them," Guererra said. "We had a couple good individual performances."

Pitcher Sara Kennedy had six strikeouts, allowed five hits, and overcame a handful of early errors in the field.

After being overmatched by St Joes, the Hawks put together several good individual efforts, allowing the team to get back into the win column.

The Hawks banged out ten hits to back Kennedy, who struck out a dozen batters and allowed four hits and three walks.

Macchiarulo had two hits, including a double, and drove in three runs, boosting her batting average to .429. Katie Laaksonen had two hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Laaksonen is batting a team-high .478. Klorczyk had a hit, two RBI, and a pair of runs scored, and is hitting .458. Emily Bell had two hits and a pair of runs scored.