Hot Team … Inferno Wins Travel Title

The Newtown Inferno, a 10 year old B travel team, held off Woodbury 3-2 to capture the Route 84 Tournament title on July 31. Newtown’s other B travel team, the Lightning, advanced to the second round of the double elimination playoffs.

The Inferno beat a tough Brookfield team to squeeze out a 9-8 dramatic win at Liberty field to advance early in the tourney. Henry Primavera opened the scoring for Newtown with a one-out single in the first followed by a clutch two-out RBI single by Eugene Citrano. In the third inning, the Inferno exploded for six runs staking their starting pitcher, Adam Beckett to a 7-0 lead. In the inning Henry Primavera hit a booming two-out double to score Ethan Aug and Adam Manes. Two batters later Beckett hit a two-run single capping the scoring.

Brookfield would not go down without a fight in the top of the fourth. Three straight singles followed by a walk got them on the board. That set the stage for a tremendous catch. With the bases loaded and no outs, Addison Abbott of Brookfield roped the first pitch he saw on a line to left-center field. Eugene Citrano ran to his right and dove horizontally to the ground and made a remarkable diving catch to snare the ball just before it hit the ground. Citrano then quickly got up on to his feet and threw a perfect bullet to home holding the runner on third.

“It reminded me of the great catch Ron Swoboda made for the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series” said Newtown’s manager Rich Dieckman. Two batters later, with the score now 7-3, Peter Debona came on to pitch and struck out the last two batters of the inning to end the threat.

Brookfield plated five more runs in the top of the fifth to take an 8-7 lead. Winning pitcher Ethan Aug came out to get three outs and stop the bleeding.

In Newtown’s half of the fifth after walks by Silas Decker and Jacob Steinebrey, Citrano hit a hard ground-ball single through the box easily scoring Decker with two outs. Beckett followed with a bad-hop single over the second baseman’s head to put Newtown back on top 9-8.

In the bottom of the sixth and last inning, with one out and a runner on first, Brookfield’s Sammy Petricone hit a clean single to right that got by Newtown’s right fielder. Adam Manes recovered quickly and relayed the ball to Steinebrey who fired to Primavera at second base to nail Petricone. Primavera then threw a strike to Debona at home to cut down the tying run and spark a big celebration at home plate.

Meanwhile, over at Sandy Hook, more late-inning drama was unfolding during the Newtown Lightning and Oxford game which Newtown won 3-2.

In the fourth inning, Wes Scriven hit a double down the left field line with two outs scoring Graham Dowd from second base and giving the Lightning a 3-1 lead. Dowd had reached first with a lead off walk followed by Sean Wallace’s bunt sacrifice.

Great defensive plays at short by Graham Dowd and Rob Lombardo, and gritty pitching by Ryan Escoda helped Newtown nurse a 3-2 lead going into the sixth. With two outs and the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second, Patrick Godino fielded a slow roller in the high grass at third before firing to first base just getting the runner by a step to spark a celebration.

Both Newtown teams started play on July 28 in a four-team double elimination playoff with Danbury and Woodbury to decide the 2010 Route 84 champion.

After dramatically beating Brookfield, the Newtown Inferno advanced to the second double elimination tournament. The Inferno topped Woodbury 16-6 at Liberty Field. Adam Wolff started and went the maximum three innings allowed under the rules. After allowing three first inning runs he settled down over his next two frames to keep Newtown within reach, 4-3 going into the bottom of the fourth. Newtown’s bats caught fire, as the team exploded for 10 runs led by Adam Beckett, Rhett Saunders, Harry Eppers, Jacob Steinebrey and first tournament MVP Citrano. Billy Kase pitched the fourth and fifth for Newtown before giving way to Aug in the sixth.

On July 29, the Inferno played for the fourth consecutive night and faced their in-town counterparts, the Newtown Lightning, in a pivotal winner’s bracket final also played at Liberty. Beckett doubled in the bottom half of a six-run first for the Inferno. Steinebrey, Adam Manes, and Henry Primavera all reached base before Beckett’s double. Pete Debona followed with an RBI single as did Eppers. Beckett, Greg Brisette, Billy Kase, and Aug held the Lightning to just a few bolts here and there en route to an 8-2 victory.

The win advanced the Inferno to the championship game played July 31 at Liberty. Woodbury had beaten the Lightning dramatically the night before 5-4 to reach the championship game. Adam Wolf, second tournament MVP, faced a potent Woodbury lineup for the second time in four days. This time he was even better, holding Woodbury to a lone first-inning run.

In the bottom half of the first, Manes drew a one out walk before Primavera singled. After a wild pitch, Citrano knocked in Manes with a grounder to second to tie the game. Beckett then singled to left center driving in Primavera to put Newtown ahead 2-1. After a walk to Kase, Peter Debona hit a hard groundball single up the middle scoring Beckett for a 3-1 lead.

Newtown’s stellar defense helped Wolff dominate the Woodbury bats over the next two innings. He got stronger as the game went on, striking out the side in the third inning. The Inferno loaded the bases twice over the next three innings but failed to score each time. Kase kept Woodbury scoreless going into the top of the fifth. However, with the score still 3-1, Woodbury loaded the bases with nobody out on a single and two walks. With the count at 2-0 on the next batter, Aug was called on to put out the fire. After a quick strike, the batter bunted and Beckett raced in from third and flipped the ball to Debona at the plate for the first out. After an unusual error at second base that made the score 3-2, Aug struck out the next two batters stranding all three base runners and preserving the slim 3-2 lead.

Peter Debona came on in the top of the sixth to close out the game. He struck out the first Woodbury batter on three pitches, and got a long fly to left fielder Harry Eppers for the second out. After Woodbury got the tying runner aboard on an error, Debona got Steve Reimold, Woodbury’s No. 3 hitter, to pop the ball high in the air along the first base line in foul territory. Debona ran off the mound and with everyone calling for him to try to make the play, out of nowhere came a diving Kase from behind the plate. Kase lunged for the ball and made a great diving catch. The entire Newtown Inferno team and coaches then jumped on their catcher in celebration.