BROOKFIELD – Over the course of three days in two different tournaments, the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 13-and-under All Star team tangled with New Milford three times.

One of those times was in the championship game of the Brookfield Invitational and there the locals trimmed pesky New Milford, 7-6, to earn the title. Not only did Newtown have to rally from a two-run deficit in this game, but it also had to hold on for dear life as New Milford rallied back itself from a four-run deficit later in the game.

Playing nine games in 12 days, the locals finished the round-robin preliminaries with a 5-1 record, losing only to New Milford. Then, in the playoffs, Newtown defeated Brookfield and Washington (both games going into extra innings) before winning the championship against New Milford.

Counting Saturday morning’s opening game of the Jimmy Fund Tournament, Newtown and New Milford (two very evenly-matched teams) played each other three times over a three-day period.

In the championship game, Newtown spotted New Milford a two-run lead in the first inning but battled back to tie it in the second. Bob Lapple walked, Greg Rodden singled, and both runners moved up on Jared Modzelewski’s sacrifice bunt. Stefan Toi then hit a two-run single to drive in both runners and tie the game.

In the third inning Newtown scored twice without the benefit of a hit to take the lead, and in the fourth scored three more runs on five walks (sandwiched around Kurtis Liska’s RBI hit) to take a 7-3 lead.

From there, the local team relied on solid defense and P.J. Cochrane’s stellar relief on the mound to hold off New Milford for the win. On defense, Ryan Clark made a key defensive stop at third base on a hard-hit ball to his left while Toi threw out the potential tying run in the sixth inning trying to steal second base.

Overall, Newtown was out-hit by New Milford, but won the game with better pitching and defense.

Over the course of the nine-game tournament, Cochrane hit .462 (12-for-26) and scored seven runs. He also pitched 10 innings, allowing just one earned run while striking out seven. Also outstanding for Newtown were Clark (.333, eight runs, 10 strong innings of pitching), Alex Magoulas (.381 with seven runs scored), and Bob Lapple and Greg Rodden (both with six RBIs for the tournament).

John Modzelewski coaches the 13s with assistance from FJ Urso and Pat Barreto. The locals are now competing in the annual Jimmy Fund Tournament at Walnut Tree Hill field in Sandy Hook.