Around The Horn — Baseball Results

15U

Southbury Select 9, Newtown Red Dawgs 8: Outstanding defensive play by left fielder Spencer Williams nearly staved off an extra-inning loss. With the winning run at third base in the eight inning, Williams made a sliding shoestring catch, and then nearly repeated the feat against the next batter as a Texas-league single barely eluded Williams’ out-stretched glove. Second baseman Dan Tomascak also made a nice play on put-out on a deflected shot though the middle in the seventh frame. The Dawgs fell behind early but rallied behind a clutch, two-run double off the bat of Ryan Kleinert. Also contributing was Kyle Wilcox, who went 2-for-2, including a triple deep to the right-center field gap, and scored three runs. Three innings of two-run pitching by Joey Maggio kept the Southbury nine in check during the middle innings.

Rebels

Newtown Rebels 5, New Fairfield 4: The Rebels bounced back from a 3-0 deficit to win their final regular-season game heading into this weekend’s single-elimination playoffs. The Rebels scored their first run in the second inning when Brandon Marks blasted a double to left center, moved to third on a grounder by Austin Raftery and made a head-first dive across the plate to score on a wild pitch. In the fifth inning, the Rebels tied the game 3-3 after Stefan Hennessey reached on an error, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher. John Hampford ripped a RBI single to right center to score Hennessey. Hampford, who leads the team with 14 RBIs and a .407 average, then stole second and later scored on an RBI groundout by Raftery. In the fifth inning, Greg Hennessey reached first base on an error, Tyler Gibney smashed a single and Eric Pisani gave the Rebels the lead for the first time with an RBI. Mike Burton slashed an RBI single to right field, which later proved to be the winning run. On the mound, Marks struck out the side in the second inning. He leads the team in strikeouts with 31 in 25 innings. Relief pitchers Stefan Hennessey, Ryan Daignault and Raftery combined to yield just one unearned run over the final five innings. Daignault was aided by left fielder Harry Snellback who made a clutch catch in the fifth inning with two outs and the bases loaded. First baseman Ben Stoller had a solid defensive game with four unassisted putouts. He also singled, walked and boosted his team-leading on-base percentage to .595.

Blanco’s Bombers 9, Newtown Rebels 5: Bombers closer Reid Schmidt pitched two shutout innings to preserve the victory. Schmidt struck out the side in the sixth inning and struck out the final batter with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Schmidt also scored three runs. Teammate Chris Robinson had two singles, scored twice and played strong game behind the plate. Second baseman Andrei Ruscoe snatched a line drive and threw to first baseman Ryan Daignault to complete a double play with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Rebels slugger Stefan Hennessey clouted a double and a single, knocked in a run and scored two runs. Ben Stoller also knocked in a run with a single to right center and threw two shutout innings without yielding a hit.