Lightning’s Strong Babe Ruth Season Comes To An End

The  Newtown Lightning 18U Senior Babe Ruth baseball team’s impressive season came to an end with a 9-1 defeat against Watertown Sunday night at Naugatuck High School Field.

The loss eliminated Newtown from the double-elimination Connecticut Senior Baseball League playoffs — one game short of a championship match-up against Shelton. 

On Saturday, Newtown almost pulled off an improbable upset, leading Shelton — this year’s and last year’s state champion — 5-4 in the fourth inning before succumbing 8-5 for the local squad’s first loss in the league playoffs. 

Despite the two season-ending losses, it was a memorable season for the Lightning. Unaware that the newly formed Connecticut Senior Baseball League would offer top competition and be filled with top high school varsity and college players, none of the players on this past spring’s Newtown High School varsity baseball team joined the Lightning, said Gary Stoller, coach of the Lightning.

With just one Newtown High varsity player who graduated last year and one player from this past season’s Newtown junior varsity team, the Lightning had to battle teams filled with varsity players and college players. The Lightning started off slowly with a 2-3 record, and Stoller said he feared the team might struggle to finish with a .500 record but things turned around quickly.

Led by the brilliant pitching of Colton Sposta and Gary Braun, the consistent hitting of Ben Stoller, Will Arndt, and John Lebinski, and clutch hitting and fielding by the entire team, the Lightning started beating one varsity-filled team after another and finished first in its I-84/Candlewood Valley Division during the regular season with a 7-4 record and went on to win the division championship.

Newtown put a huge scare into Shelton before falling at Shelton High School Field Saturday. Shelton went undefeated during this year’s regular season, often winning games by ten runs or more, including a 10-0 win over Newtown in June.

Powered by homeruns over the left field fence by Arndt and Lebinski, Newtown led 4-2 after two innings and 5-4 after 4 ½ innings. Shelton starting pitcher Conor Nolan, a starter for Western Connecticut State University last, was knocked out after two innings by Newtown.

 Newtown squandered a few chances that may have prevented it from pulling off an upset. Arndt and Stoller walked to lead off the game, but Arndt was tagged out in a rundown play on an attempted double steal.

Shelton responded in the bottom of the first with three hits and two runs off Newtown starter Alex Saviano. Shortstop Arndt fielded a grounder and threw to catcher Dan Milot to cut down a runner at the plate to prevent more damage.

In the second inning, Tim Jorgensen reached on a two-base throwing error and later scored on an RBI groundout by Scott Cunningham. Colton Sposta looped a single to short right, and Saviano drilled a line single to left. Arndt, who played a solid shortstop for the Lightning all season, crushed a fastball over the fence in left center for a three-run homerun that gave Newtown a 4-2 lead.

Shelton tied the score with two third-inning runs and might have scored more, but right fielder Cunningham fielded a single and relayed to Arndt, who threw a strike to third baseman Jorgensen to cut down a runner attempting to go from first to third on a single.

Lebinski led off the fifth inning with a towering home run over the fence down the left field line. With one out, Jorgensen walked and Cunningham was hit by a pitch. Sposta flied to right, and Saviano’s sharp grounder up the middle deflected off the pitcher’s glove into the hands of the second baseman who flipped to the shortstop for the inning-ending out. Shelton came from behind and scored the last four runs to pull of the victory.

Against Watertown at Naugatuck High School the next day, the Lightning — who had been playing so well for so long — finally came up with a flat game. Stoller, the team’s leading hitter was unavailable, and the team lacked offensive firepower. The team was overpowered by hard-throwing Watertown starter Rob Valunas, who just graduated from Watertown High School and is headed to pitch at Western Connecticut State. Valunas struck out 15 batters in seven innings. The only Newtown run scored in the third inning when the Lightning narrowed Watertown’s lead to 2-1. Saviano slapped a hard single past the third baseman, Alex Romeo lined a ball to right that was dropped by the right fielder, and Gary Braun lined an RBI single to left. The throw to the plate beat Saviano, but he made a beautiful head-first dive around the tag.

In the top of the fourth, Watertown’s leadoff batter, John Borrelli, sliced a ball down the right field line. Right fielder Romeo made one of the season’s sensational catches, running full tilt, diving head-first toward the foul line and catching the ball just before it hit the ground.  

Watertown followed with three hits after the great catch and took a 4-1 lead. Nothing went Newtown’s way after that.

Newtown had advanced in the first round of the tourney with a 6-2 win over Milford last Wednesday. Newtown jumped out to a 1-0 first-inning lead against hard-throwing right hander Adam Steneski, who pitched this spring for the 18-8 Foran High School varsity team.

Through the first five innings, Newtown’s ace pitcher Colton Sposta blanked Milford, which, besides Staneski, featured other varsity players from Foran and Jonathan Law high schools. Sposta yielded three hits, one walk and hit four batters during the five innings. In the third and fifth innings, he worked out of bases-loaded jams without surrendering a run. He received solid defensive support from center fielder Saviano, who tracked down two long fly balls, and first baseman Stoller, who recorded eight putouts and an assist on a pickoff.

Newtown, which scored first on an opening-inning error, added two third-inning runs to take a 3-0 lead. Stoller and Braun walked. With Lebinski batting, Stoller noticed the third baseman playing on the outfield grass and took off to steal third. The third baseman rushed to cover the base, and Lebinski grounded an RBI single through the vacated hole. The throw into the infield got loose and Braun scored.

Milford scored two runs on two errors in the sixth inning to narrow the score to 3-2, but Newtown bounced back for three runs in the bottom of the inning. With two strikes, Stoller was fooled by a sharp breaking Staneski curve ball in the dirt and swung and missed. He alertly reached base safely when the ball bounced past the catcher, and then stole second. Braun ripped a line-drive single, and Stoller scored on a wild pitch. Milot drilled an RBI single to right to score Braun. Milot stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and later scored. Sposta gave up six hits in the complete-game victory and struck out six.

The Lightning finished third in the league. Sposta had a magnificent season on the mound, played an excellent centerfield and was a solid back-up shortstop. He pitched 56 innings and gave up only 46 hits, 21 walks and 12 hit by pitches. He struck out 53 batters, and had an earned-run average of 2.25.

Braun, an Abbott Tech catcher who hadn’t pitched in many years, also had a terrific earned-run average: 3.21. He pitched 34 innings, yielding 39 hits, seven hit by pitches and an incredibly low five walks. He also showed the league’s best pickoff move, teaming with first baseman Stoller for several outs.

Stoller led the team with a .356 average and a .483 on-base percentage. He had the most hits (16), the most doubles (4), the most runs (17), the most stolen bases (19) and the fewest errors (2).

Braun hit .306, and James Rebman hit .303. Braun and Lebinski had the second-most hits (11), and Lebinski had the most RBIs (11).