Warriors Baseball Highlights

Newtown Warriors baseball highlights from this past week are as follows:

Warriors 6, Danbury 4: Newtown won its sixth straight game against a tough Danbury team Saturday at Fairfield Hills Field. The victory capped a successful summer travel season, boosting the Warriors’ record to 12-6-1 in the Connecticut summer league and to 15-9-1 overall. The win locked up second place in the league’s eight-team West Division and gave the local squad a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Against Danbury, starting pitcher Colton Sposta threw three shutout innings, and Newtown took a 2-0 third-inning lead. Max Temple drilled a single to center, and Brandon Cooper walked. Ben Stoller slapped an RBI grounder down the third base line, and Temple slid in safely under the catcher’s tag. John Lebinski lifted an RBI sacrifice fly down the left field line to score Cooper. With two outs in the fifth inning, Cooper again walked and stole second. Eric Sutton blooped an RBI single to center, and Stoller ripped an RBI double over the centerfielder’s head. Stoller stole third and scored on an error by the catcher. Newtown scored its final run after Austin Ekstrom crushed a double over the centerfielder’s head and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Troy Larsen. Danbury scored four sixth-inning runs, but Ekstrom struck out the side and left two runners stranded to get the save in the final inning.

Warriors 13, Waterbury 3: John Lebinski crushed a three-run homer, and, as has been the case in so many other games this season, the Warriors bounced back to victory after spotting their opponent first-inning runs. Waterbury scored two runs in its first at-bat last Friday at Walnut Tree Field, but Newtown responded with two in its first at bat. Max Temple walked, Brandon Cooper and Eric Sutton singled, Ben Stoller hit an RBI sacrifice fly, and Austin Ekstrom slapped an RBI grounder. With the score locked at two, Cooper and Sutton walked. Lebinski blasted a three-run homer over the left field fence. His monstrous clout sparked Newtown to eight more runs in subsequent innings before the game ended because of the ten-run mercy rule. Temple crushed a double to center, Cooper walked, and they both scored on errors in the fourth inning. In the next inning, Newtown scored five runs. Key hits were a double down the left field line by Colton Sposta, and back-to-back doubles to left center by Cooper and Sutton. Lebinski settled down on the mound after a wild first inning and held Waterbury to one hit and one run in the second through fourth innings. Ekstrom retired seven of eight batters he faced to get a save.

Warriors 5, Darien 0: Newtown erupted for five first-inning runs last week at Fairfield Hills Field before lightning and thunder halted the game. Newtown had its first two runners on base with no outs in the second inning when the game was stopped. With Newtown’s offensive onslaught in mind, Darien chose not to resume the game on another day and gave Newtown the win. Max Temple walked and stole second to start the Warriors’ first-inning attack. Brandon Cooper walked, and both runners moved up on a double steal. Ben Stoller drilled a two-RBI single to center and stole second and third. John Lebinski walked and stole second, and Colton Sposta slammed a two-RBI single to center. Sposta also pitched two hitless shutout innings. He was aided by a beautiful 3-6-3 double play by first baseman Stoller and shortstop Sutton.