NHS Baseball—

Completely Dominant — Pitchers Toss Two Complete Games Against Brookfield

By Andy Hutchison

When first-year coach Matt Memoli inherited the Newtown High School baseball team, he knew the hitting would be strong, but also noted that he did not want the team’s pitching talent to be overlooked because he had high hopes and expectations for his hurlers, too.

Well, after pounding out 54 runs in their first four games, the pitching has grabbed the spotlight in recent weeks. Newtown pitchers Joe Fedak and Chris Haylon tossed complete games in back-to-back wins over Brookfield, 5-2 on the road on April 23 and 5-3 at home on April 27, helping the Nighthawks improve to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in South-West Conference games.

In the game at Brookfield, Fedak tossed a five-hitter in which he allowed only two unearned runs. He threw less than 60 pitches en route to his third win in as many decisions, Memoli said.

“He was incredible, throwing first pitch strikes to mostly all hitters and allowing no walks,” the coach added.

Andy Lapple, Evan Noonan, Ryan Powers, and Ryan Tita had two hits each. Bryan Czel had a triple and run scored, and George Zaruba had a single and run batted in.

In the home game with Brookfield, Haylon struck out three batters en route to the complete, seven-inning effort, which Memoli called dominant.

Noonan was clutch at the plate as he had two hits and a pair of two-out RBI, along with a stolen base. Lapple had two hits, Czel delivered a hit and RBI, and Kyle Kromberg had two stolen bases and scored twice.

Newtown’s two wins came following a 6-3 setback at Bethel on April 21 after the Hawks had won five games in a row.

The Hawks, following Wednesday’s scheduled game at Notre Dame-Fairfield (after The Bee sports section went to press) will play Weston on Friday, April 30, under the lights at The Ballpark At Harbor Yard at 7 pm.