Newtown High School Softball Squad Keeps Winning Streak Going

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s softball team extended its winning streak to seven games with a trio of hard-fought wins this past week. The Nighthawks blanked Pomperaug of Southbury 2-0 at Treadwell Park on May 2, pulled out a 4-2 victory at New Fairfield on May 4, and edged host Bunnell of Stratford 2-1 in nine innings on May 7.

The latter two of those triumphs came in Newtown’s last at bat, giving the team four wins in its final at bat, including a pair of walk-off victories at home, this campaign. Newtown improved to 9-6 overall and 8-4 in South-West Conference play. The Hawks are among four teams — including Bunnell, Pomperaug, and New Milford — fighting for one of the final three playoff spots in the eight-team SWC tourney. By virtue of their head-to-head wins over Bunnell and Pomperaug this past week, the Hawks own tiebreakers over those rivals. NHS lost to Pomperaug early in the year in a game that didn’t count toward the conference standings.

Led by freshman pitcher Gillian Galante, the Hawks had allowed two or fewer runs in four straight games heading into Wednesday’s scheduled visit to Masuk of Monroe (after The Bee sports section went to press). Galante allowed only three hits in each of the three most recent victories.

In the win over Pomperaug, Dani Shine opened the scoring with a run-producing single in the first inning as she plated Mikayla Kuligowski with the game’s first run. In the third, Kayla O’Grady belted a homerun for a little insurance. Galante, just one win away from the ten-victory plateau, struck out five batters and walked just one.

Newtown fell behind New Fairfield by a 2-0 score but came from behind with two in the fourth and two more in the top of the seventh. In the fourth, Nora Murphy walked and Karlie Kuligowski and Galante both singled to set the table for Abi Kuligowski, who drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single to knot the score. In the decisive seventh, Newtown played small ball to chip away for a couple of runs. Emily Woznick was hit by a pitch and sacrificed to second on a Murphy bunt. Karlie Kuligowski singled to put runners on the corners. Galante followed with a run-scoring single and Mady Hauck added a sacrifice fly to add an insurance run. Galante struck out eight and walked just two in the win.

Locked up in a scoreless stalemate into the sixth inning, Newtown and Bunnell went on to play extra innings in Monday’s contest. The host Bulldogs broke the ice with a sixth-inning run, only to see the never-quit Nighthawks claw back to tie the score in their last chance, in the seventh. Jess Gibbons led off the frame with a triple and scored on a clutch, clean single up the middle off the bat of Woznick. The teams remained tied until the ninth when the Gibbons-Woznick combination worked some more magic.

Gibbons again led off with a key hit, this time reaching on a single. Woznick sacrifice bunted Gibbons to second by pushing the ball toward third and Gibbons raced all the way to third base with nobody covering the bag. An errant throw on the play allowed Gibbons to come around and score the game-winning run. Galante fanned seven batters and walked only one.

Gibbons, a junior, is 23-for-45, batting .511 to go along with a .593 on base percentage, with 20 runs batted in and 16 runs scored. She has five homeruns. O’Grady, a sophomore, is 16-for-42, batting .381 with an on base percentage of .395. Mikayla Kuligowski, a freshman and the team’s leadoff batter, is 16-for-45, hitting .356 and boasts a .453 on base percentage.

The Nighthawks entered into the middle of the week with five games left on the slate, including a pair against always tough Lauralton Hall of Milford, a rematch with a Masuk team that shut out the Hawks earlier this spring, a date with Stratford, and a potentially significant clash with New Milford. Newtown’s two remaining home games are the clashes with Stratford (May 14) and the last game of the year with Lauralton (May 17).