Softball Team Battles Growing Pains But Fights For First Win

By Andy Hutchison

Bob Guererra, Newtown High School’s girls’ softball coach, doesn’t want his team to use its overall youth and inexperience as free pass for struggles. He told his players that after five fielding errors led to a tough 8-6 loss to visiting Ridgefield in the season opener on April 4.

“I tried to tell ’em, ‘Never use your youth as an excuse not to play well,’ and I didn’t think we played very well today. We hit the ball great though,” Guererra said. “They’re capable of making a lot more plays defensively than they made today.”

Guererra knows that if the bats stay potent and the fielding irons itself out, his team will experience some winning ways this spring. It didn’t take the Nighthawks long to show some improvements, as they earned a hard-fought 5-4 win over host St Joseph of Trumbull two days later to even their record at 1-1.

Then came an 8-7 setback to host Pomperaug of Southbury on Monday. Unlike in their opening game setback, the Nighthawks really made their opponents earn this win, as the Hawks committed just one error and simply got out-slugged.

In Ridgefield game, NHS battled back from 4-0 and 6-2 deficits to get the game tied. Jess Gibbons had two triples and five runs batted in. She got caught in a pickle trying to stretch an early-game triple into a home run, and was tagged out by the Ridgefield catcher. Kayla O’Grady went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, and Mikayla Kuligowski added two hits and two runs as the Nighthawks belted out 10 base hits.

Against St Joseph, Gibbons continued her strong hitting with two doubles and a couple of runs batted in as she went 3-for-4. The Nighthawks battled back from a 4-2 third-inning deficit. Emily Woznick knocked in a run with a single, and Danielle Shine drove in the tying run. The Hawks took the lead when Gibbons doubled and scored on an error following a Woznick bunt. Newtown freshman pitcher Gillian Galante escaped a bases loaded, one-out jam in the seventh and final inning to preserve the win.

In the loss to Pomperaug, Gibbons hit a home run. Trailing 7-5 in their final at bat, the Hawks tied the game on Woznick’s two-run single, after Gibbons was intentionally walked to load the bases. Pomperaug, however, walked off with the victory in the bottom half of the seventh.

“We’ve got a lot of talent. We’ve just got to keep working and I think we’ll do really well,” Gibbons said.

In their first three games, Gibbons is 7-for-11 with two doubles, two triples, two home runs, and 10 runs batted in; and O’Grady leads the team with six runs scored.

Newtown was scheduled to host Masuk of Monroe on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press). The Hawks will host Bethel on Friday, April 13, at 4:15 pm.