A year removed from appearing in the Cal Ripken 10-year-old World Series in Vincennes, Indiana and the Newtown Blaze 11-and-under All Star team has scarcely missed a beat, amassing 27 victories over the summer and setting the stage for an unprecedented run at a third consecutive New England Regional championship.

With a 2-1 win over West Norwalk last week, the Blaze captured their third straight state championship and will begin their run in the Regionals this Saturday at Ewald Park in Southbury. The locals will host a team from Burlington, Massachusetts.

First pitch is slated for 11 am.

The Blaze have been participating in a 13-team, 12-year-old league in the Westchester/Putnam Baseball Association (WPBA) and have put together a second-place record of 13-3. In a 12-year-old Memorial Day Tournament, the locals made it all the way to the semifinals before falling, 3-0, to the Newtown 12-year-old All Star team.

Along the way in the tournament, the Blaze defeated last year’s top 11-year-old team from Westchester, 13-0.

In late June, the locals traveled to Keene, New Hampshire for a two-day tournament and against top teams from New Hampshire (Keene and Nashua) and Massachusetts (Marlboro and Hudson) they went 4-0 while out-scoring opponents 30-8.

In the Districts, the locals cruised past New Fairfield, Bethel and Southbury (twice) and then, in the States, cruised past Bolton, New Canaan and West Norwalk (twice). In those eight games, the Blaze out-scored their opponents 74-16.

This year, the locals are 13-0 against 11-year-old competition and have out-scored those opponents 117-24. In fact, over the last three years the Blaze are 59-6 against teams in their age group and have won 11 tournaments.

But they did have a tough game in the state finals and needed a combined three-hitter from Dom Fedak and Ryan Tita to pull it out. The hurlers had just three strikeouts, but off-speed deliveries created weak grounders and pop ups.

West Norwalk took the lead in the top of the second, but in the bottom of the frame Chris Tenney (who had walked) scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Austin Bonadio to tie the score. And in the bottom of the fifth, Bonadio doubled with one out, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored when Jack Kneisel – facing a two strike count – laid down a perfect bunt to score the eventual game-winning run.

The locals opened the state tournament with an 18-0 shellacking of Bolton, scoring three times in the bottom of the first, 12 times in the bottom of the second, and then three more times in the bottom of the third. Curtis Droniak belted a pair of home runs (one in the first, one in the second). Ryan Tita and Oliver Powers also homered.

Bonadio, William Arndt and Sean Ross combined on a four-inning, one-hitter.

In a win over New Canaan, Ross homered and Oliver Powers drove in a pair of runs. Tita, Oliver Powers, Droniak and Fedak combined on the mound, scattering eight hits while striking out six batters to advance to the next round.

And in their first meeting with West Norwalk, the Blaze pounded out 15 hits in a 13-5 win. The locals were down 3-2 heading into the top of the third when Fedak’s two-run double kick-started a six-run outburst. Ryan Powers doubled in a run as Ross, Kneisel and Oliver Powers all had RBI singles.

Oliver Powers had given the Blaze the lead with a two-run homer in the top of the first, but West Norwalk scored once in the bottom of the frame and then twice more in the bottom of the second, taking advantage of an error.

Fedak helped put the game away in the sixth with a leadoff homer.

Fedak (7-of-10, 1 HR, 5 RBI), Oliver Powers (7-for-12, 2 HR, 10 RBI) and Droniak (4-of-10, 2 HR, 7 RBI) powered a team that hit .436 for the tournament with seven home runs. Bonadio also drove in four runs while Ross, Kneisel, Tita and Arndt had two RBI apiece.

U12

A 6-3 loss to Marblehead, Massachusetts in the opener of the Cal Ripken New England Regionals in Winchester, Massachusetts last Saturday definitely shocked the Newtown 12-year-old All Stars.

But that shock wore off in plenty of time for the locals to crush Rhode Island (8-0) and Brunswick, Maine (13-0) and then slip past Winchester, Massachusetts (5-1) to keep their Regional championship and World Series hopes alive.

“We had that (Marblehead) game won and it just got away from us,” said manager Michael Lynch. “It took us two hours to get over that one, but I give the kids credit: They came back from it and played really well.”

The locals – despite a long layoff between the State and Regional tournaments – built up a 3-0 lead into the sixth on a solo home run by RJ Roman (in the second inning) and a two-run home run by Brandon Rosenberger (in the third).

But Marblehead scored three times in the sixth to force extra innings and won on a two-out, three-run walkoff homer in the seventh.

Newtown came back a little over 24 hours later and smashed Rhode Island, 8-0, with a second-inning power surge. Roman and Ryan Schmidt led off the frame with back-to-back homers but Daniel Lynch capped it all off with a three-run blast … the first homer of his travel career.

Mikey Tobin added a double in the fame and then Bryan Czel followed with a two-run homer in the third inning ahead of an RBI double by Johnny Fracker.

Against Brunswick, Maine, the locals scored two in the top of the first on solo homers by Fracker and Roman and added two more runs in the top of the third on RBI singles by Rosenberger and Tobin. But the locals broke the game open in the top of the fourth with a five-run outburst fueled by a two-run single from Rosenberger and a two-run double by Tobin.

Erik Hoffman stroked a two-run double and Mitch Udiskey added an RBI single in the top of the sixth to finish off the scoring.

Roman, Rosenberger, Tobin and Fracker combined on a one-hitter (that hit coming with two outs in the bottom of the sixth).

On Tuesday night, Roman, Fracker, Czel and Tobin combined on the hill for the win. The win forced a confrontation on Wednesday night with the team from New Hampshire, which was dropped into the Loser’s Bracket thanks to an 8-7 loss to Marblehead.

The winner of the Newtown-New Hampshire would move on to the championship round on Thursday and would need to defeat Marblehead twice in order to advance to the World Series in Aberdeen, Maryland.

U10

The Newtown Lightning won two of three playoff games and completed a successful inaugural season in the New Canaan Baseball League.

The Lightning – comprised of 10-year-old All-Stars – finished 10-3 in the league and 13-5 overall.

In a 7-2 win over Southbury at Liberty Field in the first round of the playoffs, starter Troy Larsen yielded two first-inning singles and then combined with Michael Koch, Kyle Morrissey and Kaleb Rowe to hold the visitors hitless the rest of the game while striking out 10 batters.

Koch also made a brilliant catch in center field, reaching to his right to grab the hardest hit ball against Newtown all season.

Ben Stoller doubled to deep left center to drive in Weston Tardie in the third inning and then stole home on a wild pitch. Tardie scored another run on an error and knocked in a run on a fielder’s choice. Koch knocked in a run on a pop-up to shortstop when Max Lopez alertly tagged up from third base and scored. Other runs were scored by Ryan Daignault, Tyler Gibney and Alex Roche.

The Lightning defense was solid through much of the contest. The game ended when catcher Roche picked off a Southbury runner who was leading off first base.

Newtown, the regular-season champion, was upset in the second round of the playoffs, 18-5, by a hard-hitting New Canaan Black team. Chris Devaney led the Lightning offense, blasting a two-run double and a single, and stealing home plate. Gibney and Morrissey also knocked in runs as Tardie, Koch, Stoller and Morrissey each scored a run.

Gibney made the defensive gem of the game, diving into the hole at third base to stop a wicked ground ball.

Newtown captured third place in the eight-team playoff when Bethany failed to show and forfeited.