Nighthawks Slug Past First Two Opponents

By Andy Hutchison

Members of the Newtown High School baseball team were outside practicing despite the intermittent rain on April 12. The team, coming off a pair of lopsided wins to begin the campaign, is looking to maintain that early-season success. which the coaches and players say was made possible by a lot of hard work in practices throughout the preseason.

Hitting, pitching, fielding — all of those elements were on track in games one and two. Newtown toppled Masuk of Monroe 9-2 in the season opener, at home, on April 6, and followed up with an 8-2 drubbing of the Rebels in New Fairfield two days later.

Newtown Coach Matt Memoli recalls how last year got off to an error-filled start in a 12-8 loss to Pomperaug of Southbury, and is pleased that his team didn’t commit a fielding miscue in either of the first two games this spring. Errorless ball is one thing, but outscoring the first two teams a combined 17-4 and getting contributions from up and down the lineup is particularly pleasing — and satisfying — for Memoli and his coaching staff.

“It’s been a pleasant surprise and think the kids kind of deserve it, the way we’ve been working — I mean we’ve been going three hours a day, six days a week so these kids want it and the seniors have been doing a tremendous job of leading by example,” Memoli said.

“It’s definitely a good start — we’ve just got to keep it going,” said senior infielder/pitcher Ryan Tita, who threw two strong innings of relief and added a pair of hits in the win over Masuk. “We’ve been working really hard and coach has been pushing us.”

Fellow senior infielder/pitcher Ryan Powers belted a two-run home run in his first at bat of the campaign helping set the tone for the early “Power surge,” but Powers notes that the team still has a long way to go.

“It feels really good just knowing you can go out there and make a difference, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s early,” Powers notes.

Newtown got a strong pitching performance from senior captain RJ Roman, who allowed only one run and one hit in the opener. Roman also contributed with the bat, going 2-for-3 with a double, home run, and three runs batted in. The senior missed about a third of season last spring because of injury and is thrilled to be a part of this fast start. “It’s definitely fun to be back on the field on a regular basis,” said Roman, who added that everyone on the team meshes and has fun while staying focused during drills.

Junior pitcher/outfielder Kyle Wilcox tossed one inning of strong relief and went 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored in the win over the Panthers. Evan Noonan, Tita, Kyle Packer, and Richy Sandler also contributed with hits, and Packer had two stolen bases.

“The guys did the little things extremely well today. We threw strikes, kept the ball low, and played great defense. We put together some quality at bats and had a lot of senior leadership for our first win of the season against a solid Masuk team,” Memoli said.

The 8-2 win over the Rebels was a much closer contest than the score depicts as the lead changed hands during the early innings. Senior Chris Haylon got the nod for the Nighthawks, and went five strong innings, allowing only two runs, scattering eight hits, and issuing three walks and striking out three. Tita struck out three batters in two scoreless innings of relief pitching.

The Nighthawk offense was again led by Wilcox who had three hits, two RBIs, and a pair stolen bases, and is 6-for-7 through the first two games. Noonan also had three hits, including a double, and knocked in two runs. David Lucia and Tita contributed two hits each, and Packer drove in a run on a double to deep left center field. Mike Allwein, Roman, and Powers also had hits for the Nighthawks.

Newtown was scheduled to face Weston on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press). Following road games at Bethel and Ansonia on Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, the Hawks return home to play Brookfield in the first of a home-and-home series, on Monday; the teams meet in Brookfield two days later.