Thunder Baseball Team Finishes World Series Experience With Victory

By Andy Hutchison

The U12 Newtown Thunder baseball team had an all-in-all memorable experience in the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Md., this past week. The New England regional champions posted four wins in five games, culminating with a 10-0 blanking of Australia in a tourney-ending consolation game on August 16.

The Thunder posted a 3-1 record in pool play, but missed qualifying for the World Series playoffs on tiebreakers. Newtown was tied with Maryland and Hawaii — each with 3-1 marks — but the team with the lowest number of runs allowed earned the top seed and head-to-head results determined the second seed. Mililani, Hawaii, despite losing to Newtown, earned the top seed by virtue of fewest runs allowed, and Maryland won the tiebreaker over Newtown. The Thunder did earn an extra game, the consolation clash with Australia, because of its three victories and third-place finish in its pool.

“It was very interesting to play a team from another country,” Newtown Coach Tom Harrison said. “It was a nice experience even though we were out of the tournament at that point. It was a nice way to wrap it up.”

Harrison noted that his team played solid all-around ball in the three-and-a-half-inning mercy rule triumph. Newtown scored three runs in each of the first two innings and added four in the third. Harrison was able to bat all 11 of his active players because it was a consolation tilt. The Thunder closed it out by maintaining a ten-run cushion after Australia’s fourth at bat. Jason Hebner, Ryan Kost, and Dylan Champagne each pitched an inning in the win. Sam Grossano and Nick Venezia both got some playing time at second base, and each made outstanding diving stops to deny Australia players of hits.

“It felt great to go 3-1 but it was very frustrating not to be able to advance on,” said Harrison, noting that his team beat Mililani, Hawaii, and needed Southwest representative Little Rock, Ark., to score three runs against Hawaii to give Newtown a playoff berth. That didn’t happen as the Hawaii team no-hit Arkansas, which had already been eliminated from playoff contention.

The Thunder had four players selected to the World Series All-Star Game: Lucas O’Brien, Adam Bergeron, Connor Barrett, and Jason Hebner.

The Thunder defeated Little Rock 8-5 in the first game. Newtown then outlasted Hawaii 11-8. After a 6-0 loss to Maryland, Newtown defeated Pacific Northwest representative Longview of Washington, 6-5, as O’Brien won the game with a homerun. The game with Longview was played at the complex’s miniature Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Bergeron, a Sox fan, took home the memory of clubbing his first career homerun at the scaled down Fenway Park. Outfielder Robert Lombardo robbed a Longview player of a homer and had the game-tying hit to set up O’Brien’s decisive swing.

Ben Dieckman pitched a perfect sixth inning to keep the game tied, striking out the two, three, and four hitters. A key play in this game turned out to be a costly one. Lombardo threw to catcher Ben Harrison who tagged out a Longview runner, and the catcher sustained a concussion and had to sit out the game with Australia.

Newtown won the state tournament and claimed the New England championship to earn its second World Series berth in three years. Two summers ago, this group went to the World Series in Florida as 10-year-olds.