Newtown Blue Travel Team’s Season Ends In States

The Newtown 11-year-old Blue Travel Team completed its season with a tough loss to Danbury in the state tournament on July 26. After beating Hebron and Danbury, Newtown lost some of its momentum with several rainouts and suffered its first loss to New Canaan before being ousted in the double elimination tournament by archrival Danbury.

In the 7-3 loss to New Canaan, things started well for Newtown. In the top of the first inning, Virgil Procaccini reached on a solid single and Julian Dunn crushed a home run over the scoreboard in right center field. Newtown tacked on another run in the second inning when Nick Lotrecchiano scored on a passed ball. He reached on a bunt single and used his speed to make it all the way to third on Troy Frangione’s sacrifice. Big Blue was seemingly in control with Virgil Procaccini shutting down New Canaan during the first two innings. In the bottom of the third, however, the New Canaan bats came alive, with five runs. Newtown’s bats could not get anything going during the final four innings.

In the 4-0 loss to Danbury, Newtown had a chance to break the ice early on but fell short. Pitcher Connor Roche held Danbury scoreless in the top of the first and Newtown loaded the bases in the bottom half as Colton Smith doubled, Procaccini was hit by a pitch and Dunn singled with only one out. But, some clutch pitching and solid defense by Danbury kept Newtown from scoring in the opening frame. After the first inning, Newtown could only manage a lone single in the fourth inning. Roche pitched five strong innings, limiting Danbury to two hits and compiling four strikeouts, but Danbury capitalized on some Newtown defensive lapses to get the win.

The season was an overall success for Newtown which won the Southbury Invitational with a 4-0 record. Newtown took second place in the always-competitive Bethel Jimmy Fund Tournament and captured the District 5 Championship to reach the state tourney.  Newtown, which posted a record of 16-7, was led by the solid bats of Procaccini, Roche, Smith, Dunn, Jim Parker and Josh Krapf. Strong pitching performances were turned in by Roche, Procaccini, Parker and Bobby Archiere. The defense was anchored by Frangione, Lotrecchiano, Kevin Conte, Charlie Huegi and Connor Miller. The Team is managed by Rob “Coach” Frangione, Pat Smith and Ken Roche.