Baseball Team Reaches SWC Championship—

Roman, LoBosco Combine To No-Hit New Fairfield

By Andy Hutchison

BETHEL — Newtown High School baseball pitchers RJ Roman and Charlie LoBosco proved, in the Nighthawks’ South-West Conference Tournament semifinals on Tuesday night, that being in a zone and focused on a task at hand can lead to tremendous success.

In fact, the hurlers were so focused on getting outs that they did not realize until after the game that they had gotten all of the outs they needed without even allowing a hit. The duo combined to no-hit New Fairfield in a 6-1 win under the lights — and an on-and-off mist — at Bethel High to push Newtown into the SWC Championship game.

There was no build up of drama to get in the way of getting outs.

“I didn’t even know I was throwing a no-hitter till the final out,” said Roman, who pitched the first five innings. “I was in the zone. I was feeling really good tonight.”

Roman had his fastball, curve, changeup and slider all working effectively to keep New Fairfield’s hitters off-balance. He struck out six batters en route to the win.

Perhaps part of the reason for the success was the imperfection of this no-hit effort.

Both Newtown pitchers struggled at times and allowed base runners via walks and hit batters, which gave the seven-inning contest a feel of an ordinary game littered with base runners for both sides. Roman walked five batters and hit two. LoBosco, who worked the final two innings, pitched around a pair of walks and hit batsmen in the final inning when the Rebels loaded the bases and scratched out a run on a sacrifice fly.

“It felt great. I got through it — that’s all that matters,” said LoBosco who was not feeling the pressure of preserving Roman’s no-hitter.

“Being effectively wild can help in high school baseball,” NHS Coach Carl Strait said.

Strait said he believed the coaches were the only people in the dugouts who knew there was a no-hitter unfolding. Nobody said anything because of the superstition (although there were whispers among reporters, scorekeepers and fans). Strait congratulated the players in the team huddle after the game and everyone was surprised to hear what they had just done, the coach said.

“I think we were all so focused on just getting outs we weren’t worried about them hitting the ball, which is nice,” Strait added.

The coach said there was talk among the coaches about keeping Roman in the game to complete the no-hitter, but that when the starter came to him and said he was out of gas after the fifth it was time for some relief help.

“They did a great job,” NHS catcher Brandon Rosenberger said. As for the no-hitter, Rosenberger said, “I didn’t want to think about it.”

Newtown, the tournament’s No. 8 seed, pulled off its second upset of the tourney with the win over the No. 4 Rebels to advance to its first SWC Championship game. NHS had defeated top-seeded Pomperaug 2-1 in the quarterfinals on May 22 for the program’s first SWC tourney victory. Strait said in the preseason that the conference was wide open this year and, as it turns out, the team that narrowly qualified for the tourney (his team) will have no worse than a runner-up finish.

The Nighthawks were scheduled to take on No. 3 Notre Dame-Fairfield in the championship game at Bethel on Thursday (after The Bee went to press). ND defeated No. 2 Bethel in the other semifinal contest.

The Nighthawks had solid defense behind Roman and LoBosco. Left fielder Jake DeVellis made a diving catch in the early innings and right fielder Anthony Lucia made a running catch in foul territory. The Rebels scored their lone run on the latter play.

Newtown, of course, had to score some runs of their own to work their way into the championship game. In the semifinal win, Newtown benefited from three New Fairfield errors and multiple pitches that got away. In the second inning, Newtown broke through for four runs. Keith McGrath had the only run batted in during the frame as the other runs came across on errors and passed balls.

Bryan Czel scored on an error in the fourth to extend the lead to 5-0. Kyle Kromberg returned to the field where he sustained head injuries after diving for a ball midway through the season and came away with a much better experience this time around. He singled, stole second and later scored on an error to make it a 6-0 game in the fifth.

In the quarterfinal round win at Pomperaug, Andy Lapple hit a sac fly and Ryan Tita delivered an RBI single. Ricky Gallucci and Roman combined to pitch Newtown into the semifinal round.

The Nighthawks had ended the season with another 2-1 win just two days before the playoffs. NHS nipped Masuk in the season finale to solidify its place in the tourney. DeVellis cracked a two-run homerun to help the Hawks to, what was at the time, a rare nail-biting win.

Newtown has apparently changed its one-run fortunes after season-long struggles in such close games. Before back-to-back 2-1 wins to end the season and start the playoffs, Newtown finally won a one-run contest in a 6-5 victory over Bunnell on May 16 after it had lost five consecutive one-run games.

“We were due,” Strait said.

Win or lose in the championship game, the Hawks are excited just to have a chance considering the program had never won a conference playoff game before this spring.

“It’s nice to get there,” Strait said.

Following the SWC finale the Hawks will begin state tourney play.