Newtown Blue Travel Team Captures District 5
Newtown Blue Travel Team Captures District 5
The Newtown 11-year-old Blue Travel Team won the District 5 Championship on July 12 and move on to the state playoffs in Woodbridge, starting on Saturday.
Newtown drew Southbury, a team that had played it tough on several occasions, in the tourney opener. Newtown came out swinging in the opener, recording 17 hits in a 10-1 win. Troy Frangione, Julian Dunn, Virgil Procaccini, Connor Roche, and Nick Lotrecchiano all had multihit games to lead the offense. Roche pitched four strong innings, striking out six and allowing a single hit. Jim Parker closed out the final two innings, allowing a single hit and no runs.
In the second contest of the double elimination tourney, Newtown faced a Woodbury team that was coming off of wins over Oxford and Waterbury. Newtownâs pitching was stellar in recording the 13-0 shutout, with Procaccini going four strong innings and Bobby Archiere finishing off the two-hitter. Parker recorded three hits, Procaccini added two, and Josh Krapf had a pinch-hit double. Julian Dunn led everyone with a 4-for-4, 5-RBI performance, capped off by a grand slam in the fifth to invoke the mercy rule on the overwhelmed Woodbury team. Newtown, the champ of the winnerâs bracket, awaited the survivor of the loserâs bracket.
Southbury managed to easily get by Oxford, Waterbury, and Woodbury to find themselves up against the Newtown team that had crushed them in the tournament opener. Big Blue got out to a 5-3 lead on the power of Procaccini and Dunn, each of whom homered in the early innings. Southbury, though, came back for an 8-6 win, setting up a winner-take-all game the next day. Â
The championship game started much like the game had ended the night before, with Southbury jumping out to a 3-0 lead. But in the second inning the Newtown bats erupted for nine runs. Newtown plated six before recording its first out of the inning. The hitting stars for the day were Connor Roche, who went 4-for-4 and scored twice; Colton Smith, who knocked in two runs, with two hits; Kevin Conte who drove in two; and Connor Miller, who singled, walked and scored a run. Procaccini and Parker turned in solid pitching performances, holding off the potent Southbury attack, in the 9-6 win.
The Team is managed by Rob âCoachâ Frangione, Pat Smith, and Ken Roche.