Pitching and power were said to be the strengths of Newtown High School’s baseball team back in preseason, when Coach Ian Thoesen suggested his team could compete with the best in the conference.

Fast forward to the South-West Conference playoffs, and the No. 3 Nighthawks went on to capture the championship with a 3-2 win over No. 4 Masuk of Monroe, at neutral site Bethel High, on May 25.

The recipe Newtown used to get there: True to form, strong work on the mound and some big bat performances at the plate.

The Nighthawks defeated No. 7 Immaculate Danbury 6-2 in the May 23 semifinals, also at Bethel’s Hunt Field, behind stellar starting pitching by Charlie Curtis and a pair of home runs. In fact, it was the pitcher who provided some of the power with Curtis going deep with a solo shot in this victory.

Newtown got a complete game effort from Curtis, who allowed six hits, walked two, and struck out eight in his seven innings of work.

“He’s a gamer,” Thoesen said of Curtis.

Josh Rosen also homered, a two-run blast, and doubled. Ryan Verdi and Will Burns each had a hit and RBI. Newtown played errorless ball. In the sixth inning, with Newtown leading 5-2 and Immaculate threatening to close the gap, the Hawks got out of the inning when second baseman Ryan Verdi snared a line drive and flipped to shortstop David Braun for a double play, ending the inning.

“They believe in each other. They’re cohesive and they battle,” Thoesen said of his team members who avenged regular-season defeats to Immaculate in the semis and New Milford in the SWC quarterfinals.

Newtown edged Masuk 5-4 in a late-season game. The Hawks went into the postseason feeling pretty good about things. The Nighthawks finished off the regular season playing quite well, winning 10 of their last 14 contests to finish 11-9 overall.

“They’re playing with confidence, which is great,” Thoesen said after his team kept up those winning ways in a wild 13-9 victory over No. 6 New Milford, at home in the conference’s first round on May 21.

This game kind of epitomized what the winning ways have been about for the Nighthawks as they combined solid hitting and strong pitching and overcame some errors.

“We fought all day,” Thoesen said. “We pick each other up.”

Down 1-0, the Nighthawks scored seven consecutive runs. In the second inning, after Yarema Stasyshyn tied things with a sacrifice fly, Rosen delivered a go-ahead single.

In the bottom of the third, the Nighthawks scored three runs, and in the fourth they added two more. Finn Geisler crushed an RBI double to right-center, Evan Nikolis ripped a double down the left field line, and Curtis hit an RBI triple to left-center. A New Milford error resulted in another run for a 7-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth, Newtown starting pitcher Will Burns nearly worked around a leadoff walk and single after striking out two and inducing a ground ball to third. A throwing error, however, resulted in a pair of runs and extended the inning. Burns was relieved Jake Hossler surrendered an RBI single and two-run double — also all unearned because of that miscue — which left the Nighthawks clinging to a 7-6 lead.

Newtown got four of those runs back in the bottom of the frame. Stasyshyn led off with a walk and later scored on an error. After Matt Pietrorazio singled, Curtis delivered his second triple of the game, a two-RBI, three-bagger, and came all the way around to score because of an error on the play. That made it 11-6 Nighthawks.

Hossler issued a walk and hit a batter to start the sixth, then buckled down and struck out the side to maintain Newtown’s five-run cushion.

Newtown tacked on in the last of the sixth. Geissler led off with a four-pitch walk, Stasyshyn singled, and Rosen came through with a two-out, two-run ground ball single to right, making it 13-6.

The Green Wave capitalized on some hits and an error to score three times in the seventh, before pitcher Nick Tetrault came in for the final out and closed the door.

Burns struck out nine, walked four, and did not allow an earned run. He was victimized by all of those unearned runs which not only made the game closer than it otherwise might have been but also shortened his outing.

“Will Burns pitched a tremendous game,” Thoesen noted.

Pitching carried Newtown past Immaculate and Masuk in the postseason

Hossler started the championship game and was solid, allowing just five hits, striking out out eight, before handing the ball over to Will Burns who came on with a baserunner on first and no outs in the sixth. Burns got the last six outs, highlighted by four strikeouts, for the win.

Newtown went on to compete in the Class LL State Tournament as the No. 20 seed and fell in a 4-1 walk-off to No. 13 Hall of West Hartford, on the road, on May 31. NHS was down several players due to illness.

It was a hectic finish to the regular slate. NHS had three games in two days to close out the regular season because of rain outs and rescheduled contests.

Newtown built a 5-0 lead and held off visiting Masuk in that 5-4 win on May 18. Braun had a hit and three runs batted in, and Curtis had a hit and RBI in the win.

The Hawks split a doubleheader with Joel Barlow of Redding at Fairfield Hills the next day, falling 8-4 and winning 2-1 behind the efforts of freshman pitcher Dan Leyva who pitched a complete game, did not walk a batter, and struck out eight on the way to handing Barlow only its third loss of the campaign. The Barlow games were to have been split with one in Redding and another at Newtown, but both contests were moved to Newtown due to wet field conditions at Barlow.

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