By Kim J. Harmon

DANBURY – Ever since a loss in the first round of the Al Leonard Tournament many moons ago, the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 9-and-under All Stars have been in a groove and no one – not even Danbury – was going to stand in their way.

The Blaze blasted Danbury, 10-0, in a four-inning, mercy-rule win on Monday night to capture the Connecticut Babe Ruth state championship and secure themselves a spot in the New England Regional Tournament this weekend in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

The Blaze crushed Cheshire (15-5) on Friday to open the state tournament and then smashed Andover (19-2) and Bethel (12-1) in a Saturday doubleheader to advance into the semifinals. And while the locals were not as dominating, they still overcame New Fairfield (4-2) and earn a spot in the state championship game.

“We had two weeks off heading into that Cheshire game,” said coach Bill Kneisel, “and we were a little sluggish. But we really kicked it in after that. But New Fairfield was a tough team and we just couldn’t shake ‘em.”

In the win over Cheshire, things were pretty tight through the first three innings, with the teams knotted at 4-4. But the Blaze broke the game open with five runs in the fourth, highlighted by Austin Bonadio putting a ball into play and sliding into first base.

Six more runs in the fifth inning put the game away. Burson was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and four runs scored to spark the offense while Ross, Tita, Oliver Powers, and Tenney collected two hits apiece.

In the win over Andover, the Blaze exploded for 17 runs in the first inning alone. The top four slots in the batting order came to the plate three times in the inning as Burson (1-for-2, three runs scored), Jack Kneisel (2-for-4 with a double and a single), Tita (2-for-2 with a triple and a double) and Oliver Powers (1-for-1, two runs scored) fueled the offense.

Chris Haylon finished 4-for-4 on the day with a double and four RBI. Colin Morris, Curtis Droniak and Tenney banged out two hits apiece while Fedak doubled. On the mound, Bonadio, Arndt and Oliver Powers combined on a no-hitter.

A real key moment came in the win against Bethel.

“It was a pretty methodical win,” said coach Kneisel. “It fell true to form. Now, this is a good hitting team, but that game really started our defense up. On one play, William Arndt (the pitcher) scooped a ground ball, checked the runner back to third, and then fired over to Dominick Fedak at first. The man on third tries to score, but Dominick fires the ball home for the final out. Since then, we have been flawless in the field.”

The Blaze had just nine hits in that game (two each by Fedak and Burson) … and didn’t need many more since Burson (two innings), Fedak (two innings) and Arndt (one inning) combined on another no-hitter with four strikeouts.

In the win over New Fairfield, the Blaze snapped a 2-2 tie in the top of the fourth inning when Oliver Powers (single), Arndt (walk) and Fedak (single) all reached base. Tita then finished off a complete-game effort, scattering six hits and striking out two batters.

It was another flawless performance in the win over Danbury. And it ran the Blaze’s remarkable winning streak to 15 games.

The locals picked up five quick runs in the first inning. Sean Ross and Ryan Tita were issued back-to-back walks and then Oliver Powers singled, Ryan Powers reached on a fielder’s choice, and Arndt doubled. The hit parade ended after Chris Tenney had singled.

The Blaze picked up five more runs in the second inning – and took that 10-0 lead – on a collection of singles from Sean Burson, Tita, Oliver Powers, Ryan Powers, Arndt and Droniak. In the midst of this offensive explosion Dominick Fedak, on the mound, scattered four hits and struck out two batters in picking up the win.

With the state championship trophy in their hands, the Blaze are now on to bigger and better things.

“Our rally cry is – ‘Go Blaze!’ And,” coach Kneisel said, “as these kids say, ‘I want the hardware.’ They are absolutely going up their to win. But if there is a team out there in New England better than us, good for them.”

The Blaze will the Eastern Massachusetts champion on Saturday at 12:30 pm and will battle host team Marlborough on Sunday at 12:30 pm. The round-robin portion of the tournament will conclude on Monday night, at 8 pm, with a battle against Danbury. The single-elimination round follows.

“These kids and their families have dedicated a lot of their time to this team,” said coach Kneisel, “and we’re treating (the New England Regionals) as a vacation. We’re not leaving until it’s all over.”

By The Numbers

Through 16 games of tournament action, the Blaze is batting a collective .401 with 155 hits in 387 trips to the plate while banging out 28 doubles, eight triples, and one home run. Oliver Powers leads the way for the Blaze at .611 (22-of-36) but Arndt (.562), Ross (.515), Tita (.500), Ryan Powers (.500), Haylon (.476) and Burson (.422) are all blistering hot at the plate.

Tenney (13 hits), Morris (9), Droniak (7), Fedak (7), Bonadio (4) and Kneisel (4) have also contributed to the offense.

And on the mound, Tita has been the workhorse with 25.1 innings and a 3.08 ERA, but he has combined with Burson, Bonadio, Fedak, Arndt and Oliver Powers to allow just 63 hits and 36 earned runs in 85 innings of work (a 2.54 ERA and .191 opponents batting average). The staff has struck out 92 batters along the way.