Lightning Strikes For Wins Over Watertown, Danbury

The Newtown Lightning 18U Connecticut Senior Baseball League team out-slugged a Watertown team and nipped a Danbury squad in a pitcher’s battle this past week. Highlights are as follows:

Lightning 12, Watertown One 9: The Lightning struck with its biggest offensive explosion of the season, pounding out 12 hits at Fairfield Hills Field. Making up a game that was rained out in Watertown, Newtown batted first on its home field and immediately scored against Watertown starter Nick Dizinno, a varsity player who graduated from Watertown High School last month. Ben Stoller lined a single, stole second, and moved to third when Gary Braun grounded out. John Lebinski slapped a clutch, two-out RBI single deep in the left-field hole and beat the throw to first. Watertown’s first four batters responded with consecutive hits off Newtown starter Mike Lobosco, and another batter drew a bases-loaded walk to give Watertown a 2-1 lead. Watertown’s Nick Ferrari, another varsity player,  grounded to shortstop Colton Sposta, who flipped to second baseman Joey Maggio for one out, and Maggio threw to wide-stretching first baseman Stoller to end the uprising and complete a double play. The Lightning, sponsored by VFW Post 308, erupted for five second-inning runs off Dizinno. James Rebman drilled a single, stole second and moved to third when Sposta ripped a single. The two Lightning players pulled a double steal with Rebman scoring. Maggio walked, stole second and his big lead caused the pitcher to balk, scoring Sposta. Lobosco lined an RBI single, and Stoller walked. Lebinski hit a bomb, a long double over the left fielder’s head that scored Lobosco and a speedy Stoller from first. Leading 6-2 in the third inning, Newtown piled on four more runs. Tim Jorgensen drilled a long single down the left field line and stole second. Sposta blasted an RBI double over the left fielder’s head, and Maggio walked. Lobosco crushed a towering, two-RBI triple to center. Stoller was hit by a pitch, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch that scored Lobosco. Newtown scored another run in the fourth to take an 11-3 lead when Dan Milot blasted a double down the left field line and scored on Rebman’s line-single to right. Watertown scored two fourth-inning runs to cut the lead to 11-5 and would have scored more if not for Sposta and Saviano. With the bases loaded, Sposta snared a line drive and threw across the diamond to Stoller for a double play. With the bases reloaded, Saviano came on in relief and induced a grounder to the mound to get out of the jam. Saviano followed with two perfect, shutout innings. Newtown played a sloppy final inning to make the score close before Saviano nailed down the final out on a popup to Sposta.

Lightning 2, Danbury Two 1: Colton Sposta hurled a brilliant complete-game, one-hitter at Danbury’s Rogers Park. The win upped the Lightning’s record to 6-4. Sposta retired the first 11 batters before yielding a fourth-inning walk. He hit one batter in the fifth inning when Danbury scored an unearned run. Only two other batters reached base on errors, and five struck out swinging against Sposta. Newtown scored its two runs in the second inning. John Lebinski walked, Tim Jorgensen drilled a single to left and Alex Saviano crushed a long RBI double to left center. Jorgensen dove head-first across the plate to score on a wild pitch.