By Kim J. Harmon

There comes a point when you can’t find any more adjectives, any more superlatives to heap upon the pile. There comes a point when you have to just sit back and bask in the glow of a summer season unlike any other.

Well – at least for now.

With the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 10-and-under All Stars winning their second New England Regional championship in a row and traveling to Arkansas for the Cal Ripken World Series; with the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 11-and-under All Stars winning their unprecedented third New England Regional championship in a row; and with the Newtown Hawks 12-and-under travel softball team breezing through the Fairfield County Fastpitch Softball League tournament the 2005 summer season was one of extraordinary success.

Yes, extraordinary.

Incredible.

Unbelievable.

Amazing.

Astounding.

Stunning.

Dazzling.

That’s seven adjectives right there and with only a few more seconds of paging through Roget’s Thesaurus, there would be a dozen more right beside them. And what makes this whole thing even more extraordinary, incredible and unbelievable is that there are some who think 2006 could be even better.

Gosh.

Without question, the top story of the summer was the Newtown Bombers blasting through the District, State and New England Regional tournaments all the way to the Cal Ripken World Series in Russellville, Arkansas. With a solid pitching rotation featuring Colton Sposta, Dan Poeltl and Jon Hull the Bombers rarely had to worry about producing a lot of runs … but producing a lot of runs they did because they had guys like Reid Schmidt, Gary Braun, David Gerics, Dean Demers and Chad Magoulas swinging the aluminum.

But the 11-and-under All Stars, the Newtown Blaze, had an equally magical summer as they defeated Keene, New Hampshire for their third consecutive New England Regional title. The Blaze – who went to the Cal Ripken World Series in Vincennes, Indiana last summer – spent this summer playing in a 12-year-old league out of New York in addition to their 11-year-old tournament action. The Blaze lost just five times … all to 12-year-old teams. With the monstrous offensive power of guys like Ryan Tita, Casey Tenney, Dom Fedak and Oliver Powers the Blaze always had a ton of runs to work with but still had pitchers like Curtis Droniak and Austin Bonadio to shut down the opposing offenses should Newtown runs become scarce … which they never were.

On the softball diamond, the Newtown Hawks 12-and-under travel team coasted through the FCFSL Tournament and routed Darien for the championship. Coach Nancy Bowen had a stable of powerful pitchers – Katie Bowen, Ally Modzelewski and Colleen Cunningham – to run out to the mound and then could sit back and watch the offense (led by players like Bowen, Rachel Ruiz, Ashley Kuligowski, Nicole Elias and Paige Woodhouse) spray the field with hits.

Those were the champions, but one can’t forget the teams that came close – the Newtown Babe Ruth Baseball 12-year-old All Stars, who were within one win of reaching the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Maryland; the Newtown Hawks 16-and-under travel softball team, which reached the semi-finals of the Central Valley Fastpitch League tournament; and the Newtown Force 14-and-under travel softball team, which also reached the semi-finals of the CVFL tournament.

And on top of all that, the Newtown Lightning 10-and-under travel team captured the New Canaan Baseball League regular season title at 8-2.

What an spectacular summer it was.