NHS Softball Wins Them All—

Undefeated! — Nighthawks 20-0 In Regular Season, Turn Attention To Playoffs

By Andy Hutchison

It started with a 9-2 win at Danbury on April 7 and continued with 19 more victories — most of them as lopsided as the opener and some hard-fought. In the end, Newtown High School’s softball team got the job done against every opponent and celebrated a perfect 20-0 campaign.

Newtown Coach Bob Guererra said he never dreamed of going 20-0 and credited both the upperclassmen and fast-emerging newcomers to the team for doing their parts and stepping up, respectively, to lift the Nighthawks to their high-flying — and unbeatable — ways.

Now, the Nighthawks have moved on and are looking to continue that success when it matters most — in the postseason.

“It was really a great accomplishment going undefeated, but we’re not going to rest on that,” senior pitcher and No. 3 hitter Kate Bowen said. “We’re not going to stop there.”

Bowen added that while the Nighthawks are taking it one game at a time, they are also keeping an eye on the ultimate goal: a championship.

Newtown began South-West Conference Tournament action on May 25 and, as the No. 1 seed, hosted No. 8 Bunnell of Stratford at Treadwell Park. Newtown, behind Bowen’s 14-strikeout two-hitter, rolled to a 5-0 win to advance to Thursday’s semifinals (after The Bee went to press).

With a win — and there isn’t a person in Newtown who didn’t expect the Hawks to prevail — Newtown would play in the championship game Friday, May 28 (at Stratford’s DeLuca Field at 7 pm).

Against Bunnell, Ashley Kuligowski drew a walk and scored following a pair of Bunnell errors for a 1-0 first-inning lead. Newtown added three runs in the second. Natalie Dunn tripled and later scored. Kuligowski had a two-run double and Bowen knocked in a run with a double of her own. Newtown tacked on its fifth run when Jessica Gibbons reached home on a bases-loaded infield single in the sixth.

The Nighthawks are the clear favorites to win the conference crown but they are not taking anyone for granted.

“Here we know the opponents. We’ve gone 20-0 against them, so the pressure’s on us,” said Guererra, adding that the opponents can enter the games with a feeling of having nothing to lose.

“On our end, we’re like the UConn women,” he continued, alluding to the unbeaten University of Connecticut women’s basketball team. “Everybody’s gunning for you so you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game every game, you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ intensity every game, you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ defense every game — and see what happens,” he said.

“But that’s fun. To me, that’s why you play. You play to win pressure games, to put yourself into a position to be successful — that’s what it’s all about,” Guererra added.

Newtown has been tested a little bit. There was that 10-inning 1-0 win over Holy Cross of Waterbury and a pair of games to end the regular season.

The Hawks visited Lauralton Hall in Milford in the second to last game of the regular campaign on May 19. Hall entered the game with just one loss and was unbeaten in SWC play — until Newtown came through with a 4-0 win. Bowen gave up two hits and fanned seven batters.

Freshman Monica Macchiarulo sparked the team to a fast offensive start with a leadoff triple and scored on Bowen’s RBI single. Macchiarulo went 3-for-4 in the win.

It remained a 1-0 game until the fourth when Megan Gibbons doubled and was driven in by Colleen Cunningham’s single. Macchiarulo tripled again in the fifth and scored on a Kuligowski single. In the seventh, Dunn singled and later scored on another Kuligowski hit.

On May 20, Newtown upended Masuk of Monroe 8-1 on the road. Bowen allowed three hits and again compiled seven strikeouts. Despite the lopsided final score, this game was actually quite close as the Hawks broke open a 1-1 tie in the sixth. The big hit was Cunningham’s two-run double in the sixth. Newtown padded its lead with five in the seventh. Cunningham drove in three, and Kuligowski, Megan Gibbons, Jessica Gibbons, Cunningham, and Ally Modzelewski all had two hits.

The Hawks hope the hits keep on coming in the postseason.