By Kim J. Harmon

KEENE, New Hampshire – Never before has the probable seemed so improbable.

The Newtown Blaze 12-year-old All Star team was supposed to handle Cranston, Rhode Island, on Thursday night in the finals of the New England Babe Ruth Regional Championships in Keene, New Hampshire the same way they handled ‘em two nights before.

But Cranston – which advanced to the championship round with a 2-1 win over Mesalonskee, Maine, in the Loser’s Bracket final – refused to kowtow to the most explosive team in New England and with a grand slam doing most of the damage, Cranston took a 6-0 lead after two innings.

The Blaze, though, merely perturbed by the deficit but seemingly unfazed, scratched and clawed and when the opportunity was there to take control of the game they jumped all over it.

Down 10-7 with the sacks full and one out in the books in the bottom of the fifth, Oliver Powers destroyed a 2-0 offering and sent it sizzling into the trees behind the right-centerfield fence to put the Blaze on top for the first time, 11-10.

“I thought about what I had to do to win and I was just trying to go out and get a base hit,” said Oliver Powers. “It was a great opportunity.”

The grand slam was the first of his career and, ostensibly, erased the big tomato he allowed in the first inning.

“We made a couple of errors in that inning and that kid got a great hit off me,” said Powers, “but it was nice to be able to get some revenge.”

With the Blaze suddenly on top, Ryan Tita – who struck out nine batters in five innings of two-hit ball against Cranston two days before – came on to nail down the save.

“Oh, I knew we were going to come back,” he said.

Besides the grannie by Powers and the inning of shutdown relief by Tita, Curtis Droniak pitched one-and-two-thirds critical innings of middle relief, stopping the bleeding when the bleeding seemingly wouldn’t stop; Ryan Powers made a terrific grab in centerfield in the top of the fourth, running down a long drive with runners already on first and second; and Sean Ross – who managed just two at-bats in the tournament because of an injury – drilled a third inning two-bagger off the centerfield fence that woke up the slumbering Newtown offense.

And with all of that, the Blaze captured their fourth consecutive New England Regional championship and began making plans for their trip to the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Maryland (August 13-20).

“I knew it would happen,” said Powers. “This is a great team and we’ve gotten stronger and better as we’ve gotten older.”

First-Inning Foibles

Moments before the first pitch manager Bill Kneisel gathered his club and reminded the players to relax, play their own game, and – above all else – don’t give Cranston any help.

But that’s what the Blaze did right from the very start, failing to field a nubber between the mound and first base (three players had the chance to field it, but none did), letting a hard grounder slip through the wickets and throwing balls away.

Under any other circumstances, the grand slam by Spetelinas with no one out in the top of the first should have shocked the Blaze enough but they continued to give Cranston a nudge with a series of miscues, bungles and clinkers. And it certainly didn’t help the Newtown cause any that Cranston was working the aluminum pretty well and was hitting pretty much everything Powers was throwing at ‘em.

“I struggled in that first inning,” the lanky pitcher said, “but I knew we’ve come back from that many runs before and there was plenty of baseball to be played.”

Actually, the whole team struggled in that first inning. A throwing error, fielding error and single loaded the bases for Spetelinas, who belted a 1-1 pitch from Powers over the centerfield fence to stake Cranston to a 4-0 lead. The Blaze escaped from further damage by turning in a 1-6-3 double play to end the frame.

But after going quietly in the bottom of the first, the Blaze allowed two more runs in the top of the second thanks to a double and a throwing error. The Blaze went relatively quietly in the bottom of the second, putting one runner on (Austin Bonadio, via a walk), but the locals didn’t allow any more runs in the top of the third despite a single and another fielding error.

And in the bottom of the third, the Blaze started to make some noise.

Spetelinas had pitched two solid innings and seemed ready for another solid frame when he whiffed Curtis Droniak for the first out. But his control started to lag as he walked Colin Morris and Ryan Tita to put runners on first and second. Oliver Powers singled to load the bases and Ryan Powers singled in the first Newtown run. Sean Burson then walked, forcing Tita home, and Ross (on a line drive right to the middle of the centerfield fence) doubled Oliver and Ryan Powers as the Blaze trimmed the Cranston lead to 6-4.

The Ross double chased Spetelinas, but Dom Fedak followed with a pop fly to short left field. The catch was made by the shortstop, but an alert Burson scored from third to cut the Cranston lead to a single run.

Fans and coaches on the Newtown side were able to take a sigh of relief as a blowout was seemingly averted. It may have even seemed as if the Blaze, now awakened, would simply take over the game and put it away.

But in the top of the fourth inning, with Bonadio now on the hill, Cranston continued to wield the hot aluminum. A single led off the frame but a walk and a throwing error allowed one run to score and two singles plated three more runs to put Cranston back on top, 10-5.

In the bottom of the fourth, the locals got one run back. Droniak singled and reached second on a fielding error but was erased when a hard hit ball by Oliver Powers struck Droniak as he attempted to reach third. Nevertheless, Morris – who had reached on the error – moved to second on the Powers single and then third when Ryan Powers was walked to load the bags. Burson worked out a nine-pitch at-bat and knocked a bounding ball that the Cranston shortstop was unable to field, allowing Morris to score.

Cranston then led 10-6. In the top of the fifth, Droniak – who had relieved Bonadio in the fourth – allowed a single but set Cranston down with no further damage done.

Then came the rally.

Fedak led off, but was erased on a grounder back to the box. William Arndt doubled and Droniak reached on a fielding error. Morris then singled to load the bases for arguably the two best hitters in New England – Ryan Tita and Oliver Powers.

“I was hoping I could do something (like that),” said Tita, “but (Oliver’s) hit was big.”

Tita reached on an infield single, scoring Arndt and trimming the Cranston lead to 10-7. Then Powers stepped up and leaned into a 2-0 pitch, sending it rocketing over the right-centerfield fence for a grandslam that put Newtown on top for the first time, 11-10.

Tita quickly warmed up on the sideline and stepped up to the mound for the top of the sixth, setting down Cranston in order as the Blaze captured their fourth consecutive New England Regional championship.

It was not the cleanest win – or the cleanest game (eight errors all told) – but the Blaze set a standard that might never be equaled and only one thing can make the accomplishment any better.

A Cal Ripken World Series championship.

LIGHTNING

The Newtown Lightning completed a second consecutive successful season, finishing with a 13-9 record before bowing out in the semifinals of the Connecticut Summer Baseball League playoffs.

The 11-year-old travel team defeated Easton, 9-2, in the opening round of the playoffs before dropping an 8-0 decision in Fairfield Saturday. Fairfield advanced to the championship game and was trounced, 14-2, by Redding, a powerful team of 12 year olds whose only loss was to the Lightning, 8-5, at Liberty Field during the regular season.

Against Easton at Glander Field, the Lightning used the brilliant pitching of Troy Larsen and Dan Gustafson and the clutch hitting of Ben Stoller and Gustafson to work out the win.

The Lightning jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings, scoring once in the first when Tyler Gibney doubled and later scored on an RBI grounder by Stoller and four more times in the second on an RBI single by Ryan Daignault, a fielder’s choice grounder, and a two-run double by Gustafson.

Meanwhile, Larson battled out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the first inning and struck out the side in the second inning to keep Easton scoreless. Easton did reach Larson in the third, though, scoring twice to narrow the gap to 5-2. Further damage was averted when Gustafson came on in relief and retired three straight hitters.

The locals scored twice in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run double by Stoller, which scored Wes Tardie and Gibney. In the fifth, Mike Scharfenberg stole home and Rob Andreotta drove in Alex Roche on a infield groundout to put the locals up, 9-2.

In the semifinals against Fairfield, the Lightning had to take the field even as several players were felled by illness, wasp stings and the blazing heat. Still, the game stood at 0-0 after two innings as the Lightning tried to hang on. Larsen pitched well through two innings, thanks to a fine catch by Daignault in left field, but Fairfield started the scoring with a three-run homer in the third and didn’t stop until the 8-0 decision had been recorded.

Gibney, Scharfenberg, Roche, Nicky Sajovic and Pat Thornberg collected the only Newtown hits in the game. Roche and Sajovic played well in the field and Kaleb Rowe pitched well in relief.

The summer league playoffs followed on the heels of the Seabreeze Tournament in Orange, where the Lightning finished with a 3-3 record.

In Newtown’s final game, the Lightning bounced back from a 6-0 deficit and scored three fourth-inning runs to put a scare into a very powerful Orange team. Tardie and Gibney knocked in runs with bases-loaded walks and Larsen drove in another with a single.

But Orange proved too strong for the local club in the final two innings and pulled away for a 14-4 win. Lightning pitcher John Lebinski pitched valiantly, shutting out the powerful Orange team for two innings.

Rowe fielded flawlessly at first base for the Lightning and helped douse a fifth-inning Orange rally by striking out two batters in relief. Stoller also sparked the defense, making a diving stop in the hole at second base to corral a smash by Orange’s first batter.

In the six-game tournament, Stoller hit a team-high .500, scoring four runs and knocking in three others. Scharfenberg hit .44 with a pair of doubles as Thornberg hit .364 with five RBI. For the season, Thornberg hit a team-high .442 with a nifty .556 on-base percentage. Gibney (.400 BA, .516 OBP with a team-high 22 runs), Stoller (.393 and .486 with a team-high 17 RBI) and Gustafson (.381 and .466 with a team-high 24 hits and team-high 17 RBI)) also hit well all year.

Sajovic earned a Gold Glove in centerfield, committing only one error all season, and was the top pitcher with a 4.42 ERA. Larsen, who led the team with 32 innings pitched, boasted a 4.78 ERA. Rowe, Gustafson and Lebinski also pitched well throughout the season.