Trailing 6-0 after two innings, down 7-4 in the seventh inning, and still behind by a run when down to its final strike, Newtown High School’s softball team managed a comeback. The Nighthawks improbably forced extra innings before falling 8-7 to visiting Notre Dame-Fairfield, in a cool and wet-at-the-start April 16 clash.

“It was great to see them have heart in the seventh inning,” Coach Joanna Closs said.

Things could not have started out much worse for the Nighthawks as the Lancers hit Newtown pitching to the tune of five runs and a comebacker off the bare hand of NHS starter Nicole Fisher, knocking her out of the game.

Sydney Adolfson came on in relief and settled in nicely to allow her team’s offense a chance to scratch and claw back into the contest.

Katie Goyda got the scoring started when she plated Caroline Gardner with a single. Bri Pellicone had an RBI double, and Morgan Melillo delivered a two-run single as Newtown turned a 6-1 deficit into a 6-4 game in the sixth inning.

Notre Dame tacked on what proved to be an ultra-important insurance run in the top of the seventh for a 7-4 cushion, before the Nighthawks rallied in their half of the frame. Goyda delivered a clutch two-run single to make it 7-6. Two outs later, including one on a hard-hit liner off the bat of Pellicone back to Notre Dame’s pitcher, and with two strikes, Melillo tied the game with an opposite-field single. Maddie Twitchell and Ashley Hubner had hits to begin the seventh-inning rally.

The Nighthawks committed a handful of errors, including one that led to the decisive run, in the eighth inning. Notre Dame’s Izzy Ingersoll singled and, after being sacrificed on a bunt, aggressively ran all the way to third base, then came home on an errant throw to third.

Closs thought her team should have won the game, and certainly the Hawks could have with a cleaner fielding performance.

“I have to remind myself I’ve got young kids on the field. I asked them to grow up really fast, and they will,” Closs said.

Newtown was trying to bounce back from a 5-0 setback to host Masuk of Monroe two days earlier.

“They showed fight which is great to see — that they didn’t give up. We have so much potential. We’ve just got to find a way to put it together,” Closs said.

The Hawks put it all together to beat visiting Pomperaug of Southbury — playing its first game of the season due to coronavirus protocol — 12-0 in a five-inning, mercy rule triumph on April 20.

Adolfson was dominant in the circle, tossing a two-hitter and striking out 13, recording all but two outs via the strikeout. Gardner and Pellicone both hit two-run homer runs to lead the offense. Fisher, Sarah Kick, Goyda, Hubner, and Adolfson all drove in runs.