Lightning Baseball Team Sweeps Double Header

The Newtown Lightning swept the first day-night doubleheader in its history Saturday at Sandy Hook’s Walnut Tree Field, coming from behind to beat Aspetuck, 8-7, and Brookfield, 9-5 in 13-year-old Prep Summer League action. The wins, which followed a 9-6 defeat to Southbury on Friday, moved the local team into first place in the standings with a 5-1 record.

Lightning 8 Aspetuck 7: Down by two runs in their last at-bat, the Lightning battled back for three runs to win the game. The Lightning’s Jack Champagne walked, took second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by John Lebinski. Mike Scharfenberg clouted a double to deep left field to send Lebinski to third base, and Ben Stoller walked to load the bases. Kyler Harmeling drew a walk to knock in the tying run, and Nicky Sajovic was hit by a pitch to force in the winning run.

It was the second time the local squad fought back. Trailing 4-0 in the second inning, the Lightning rebounded for five runs. Lebinski and Scharfenberg walked, and Stoller drilled an RBI single to right center. Harmeling followed with a bloop RBI single to right field, and Ryan Daignault, Dean Baye and Collin Hall drew RBI walks with the bases loaded.

Harmeling pitched a scoreless third inning, thanks to catcher Mike LoBosco, who threw out a base stealer at second, and Mario Pizighelli, who snagged a fly ball to left field with the bases loaded. LoBosco, who threw out three base stealers during the game, came in to pitch with runners on first and third in the sixth inning and struck out two batters to put out the fire. He also threw a scoreless seventh inning to set the stage for the Lightning’s comeback rally.

Lightning 9 Brookfield 5: Trailing 2-0 in the first inning, the Lightning staged a two-out, three-run rally to take the lead and cruised to victory behind the strong right arm of pitcher Dan Gustafson. Pat Thornberg started the rally by beating out an infield single, stealing second and going to third on a wild pitch. Mike Scharfenberg bounced an RBI single up the middle. John Lebinski singled, and Scharfenberg scored on an RBI single by Kyler Harmeling. Lebinski scored on an error to give the Lightning the lead. Gustafson, meanwhile, held Brookfield to three runs over four innings, yielding just three hits and striking out four. Lebinski followed with two shutout innings, giving up only one hit. Ryan Daignault sparked the offense with two hits, a walk and two runs scored. Thornberg also scored two runs and reached base in all three at-bats. Jack Champagne made two great catches at third base, and singled and scored a run.

Southbury 9 Newtown Lightning 6: Southbury jumped out to 3-0 first-inning and 6-1 third-inning leads, and the Lightning could never catch up at Southbury Community Field. In the third inning, the Lightning’s Nicky Sajovic ripped a single to right center to score Jack Champagne, who had reached on a single. Pat Thornberg hit an RBI grounder, and Champagne and Dean Baye drove in runs with walks. In the last inning, Champagne crushed a pitch to deep left field to drive in John Lebinski, who singled, and Kyler Harmeling, who walked. Harmeling, Mike Scharfenberg and Ben Stoller tossed shutout innings.