13-Year-Old Babe Ruth Team Wins Wild Games

By Andy Hutchison

TRUMBULL — A walk-off win one day, another nail-biting victory the next ... then, suddenly facing elimination — this is what the playoffs are all about.

The Newtown Bombers 13-year-old Babe Ruth team won its first two state tournament games this past weekend and lost its third game, on Tuesday night, at Unity Park.

After beating Norwalk 9-8 on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday morning, Newtown stayed in the winner’s bracket with a 4-3 win over Southington North on Sunday but dropped into the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tourney in a 7-0 loss to Greenwich on Tuesday. The Bombers needed a win over Naugatuck to stay alive, then would have to defeat Greenwich twice (once on Thursday and again Friday) to advance to the New England Regional tourney. Win or lose, participating in tournaments is always a thrill, all the while a little nerve-wracking, for the players and coaches alike.

“It’s pretty awesome. It’s tough and it’s always close,” player Jon Hull said of tournament baseball.

Newtown had won nine straight games, dating back to its district championship run, before falling to Greenwich in a game in which the Bombers were held to three hits by Greenwich starting pitcher Jonathan Mills.

Both of the state tourney wins came in dramatic fashion. In the 9-8 win over Norwalk, a three-hour-long game in sweltering 90-plus-degree heat, Newtown pitchers walked 16 Norwalk batters.

“We walked the heck out of them but we never gave up that bases-clearing double,” said Newtown Manager Josh Hull, noting that Norwalk had only one double. “Our pitchers battled [Saturday].”

Ironically, three seventh-inning walks to Newtown hitters, including a walk-off base on balls by Andrew Kelly, won the game. Norwalk battled back from an 8-5 deficit with three runs in the sixth before Newtown’s rally.

“It’s fun. We earned it,” player Joe Davis said.

Kelly had a two-run double, Kyle Wilcox was 2-for-3 with three runs scored, Hull reached base four times and scored twice and Chris Tenney was 3-for-4 with a double.

In the win over Southington North, Wilcox threw six scoreless on the mound, singled and scored the tying run on Dan Poeltl’s squeeze execution in the sixth, and drove in the eventual winning run with a two-out single in the top of the seventh.

“Just to be back in these types of situations is huge for me,” said Tenney, who remembers intense win-or-go-home games from postseason tournaments in past seasons.