Newtown High School’s softball team sandwiched another lopsided win over a South-West Conference foe — a 20-4 drubbing of host Immaculate of Danbury on May 2 — with a pair of challenging nonconference clashes as the Nighthawks played three games in as many days. The Hawks eked out a 4-3 win over Shepaug Valley of Washington under the lights at Treadwell Park on May 1 and lost 5-2 at Waterford on May 3.

The Shepaug game was tense right down to the final pitch. Newtown answered a first-inning run by the visitors with an opening-frame run of its own and went ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning. Shepaug tied the score with two runs in the top of the fourth. NHS retook the lead in the last of the fourth and held on.

Nighthawk pitcher Maddie Thoesen got out of a second and third, no-out jam in the top of the seventh with three straight strikeouts and her 15 Ks in the game.

“Just getting outs — focusing on attacking batters,” Thoesen said was her mindset to escape that pressure situation with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

“She lives for that,” Newtown Coach Megan Goyda said of her pitcher facing adversity.

Thoesen allowed only one earned run as a trio of Newtown fielding errors aided Shepaug. The tie-breaking run came after Caruso doubled to left and courtesy runner Lucy Diorio scored on an error. This win was a rewarding one for the Nighthawks who lost twice to Shepaug last year.

“We came into this game looking for some redemption,” Goyda said.

Thoesen had two hits, a run batted in, and run scored; Olivia Doersch had a hit, RBI, and run scored; Lila Accousti collected two hits, including a triple, and run scored; and Sophia Caruso doubled and scored a run.

Shepaug pitcher Cammie Tisi, of Newtown, allowed seven hits and three earned runs; she walked three and struck out two. The sophomore worked out of some jams herself and has pitched well for her team (see related story).

Next came the Immaculate game. Newtown posted 20 runs for the second time, having beaten Joel Barlow of Redding 21-0 the week before. This marked Newtown’s fourth game in which the Hawks have scored double digits. Throw in a 9-0 victory and NHS has mostly dominated the competition from within the SWC.

Against Immaculate, Gabby Ansman led the way with three hits, including a triple, and eight runs batted in. Thoesen and Addy Cordova also tripled, and Caruso smacked a double. Doersch had three hits, including a home run. Thoesen and Elena Burdo each drove in three runs with Thoesen collecting four hits, Caruso had three hits, two RBI, and five runs scored. Nighthawk batters were as patient as they were powerful, working 11 walks to go along with 15 base hits. Cordova was in the pitcher’s circle and allowed two earned runs, walked three, and struck out eight in this five-inning, mercy-rule triumph.

Waterford jumped out to a 5-0 lead en route to dropping the Nighthawks to 7-5 overall (5-0 in SWC play). It was scoreless until Waterford plated three runs in the fourth and added two more in the sixth inning. Thoesen allowed only two earned runs, walked one, and struck out 11. Gillian Boughan and Doersch both had hits and runs batted in, Reagan Schenzer had two hits and a run scored, and Ansman had a hit and scored.

Newtown, following Wednesday’s scheduled home game with New Milford and Thursday’s visit to Masuk of Monroe (read about that action in the May 16 print edition of The Bee), hosts Brookfield in a makeup game (rained out May 5) on Saturday, May 10 at 2 pm. Masuk, the defending SWC Champion, has just one loss in conference play; and that was to Brookfield, which is unbeaten in SWC action. In other words, these are games that should serve as good barometers for the Nighthawks as they hit the stretch run and get ready to make another run; last year the Nighthawks reached the conference title game.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.