As the inaugural Connecticut Babe Ruth Baseball 50/70 Tournament entered the third round on Wednesday, New Canaan and Greenwich remained as the only undefeated teams.

The Newtown 12-year-old All Star team opened the tournament last Sunday with a 13-1, mercy-rule-shortened win over Danbury but followed up on Tuesday with a 9-7 loss to New Canaan.

Dropping into the Loser’s Bracket, the locals were slated to meet West Norwalk on Wednesday night.

West Norwalk fell to Danbury, 11-10, in its tournament opener but rebounded with a 12-7 win over Middlebury and a 7-3 win over Southbury.

Weather permitting, the tournament finals are slated for Saturday at Glander Field at 10 am.

U15

With a 6-4 win over Bethel on Tuesday night, the Newtown 15-year-old travel team was one step away from challenging for the District 4 championship.

The locals were slated to play New Milford on Wednesday night, with the winner advanced to meet Ridgefield for the District title.

Newtown opened the tournament with a 6-5 loss to New Milford, but rallied back with wins over Brookfield (17-0), Aspetuck (11-1) and Bethel.

In the loss to New Milford, the locals built a 5-2 lead on a Pete Wlasuk triple and sac fly by Dan Milot in the second inning; a Milot single, a triple by Tyler Edwards, and a double by Jack List in the fourth; and a Nick Neves single in the fifth.

New Milford rallied in the bottom of sixth, scoring four times … the final three on fielding miscues.

List hurled five strong innings, allowing only two runs.

In the win over Brookfield, Newtown exploded for 14 runs in the top of the first and never looked back. Joe Fedak (4-for-4, 2 RBI ), Mike Coates (4-for-4, 3 RBI), Milot (3 hits, 3 RBI) and Dale Neves (2-for-2, 2 RBI) sparked the offense. Edwards smashed a two-run homerun to dead centerfield, traveling an estimated 375 feet, to further fuel the attack.

Fedak and Coates shared the shutout on the mound.

In the win over Aspetuck, Newtown scored eight times in the bottom of the first to coast to victory. Fedak (2-for-3, 2 RBI), Nick Neves (2-for-2, 2 RBI) and Dale Neves (2 RBI) led the way. Edwards continued to refine his power stroke with a long triple to centerfield.

Wlasuk pitched four innings, striking out seven.

In the win over Bethel, Lago knocked in the tying run in bottom of fifth with a long triple to left field, scoring Edwards, and then scored the eventual winning run on a wild pitch.

Adam Schankman pinch hit a single and scored on a triple by JR Shine, who finished the day 3-for-3 with two RBI. Fedak hurled four innings, allowing two runs, and after Bethel went ahead, 4-3, Wlasuk shut the door for the final three innings.

U12

CSBL

Playing their best baseball of the summer travel season, the Newtown Lightning 12-year-old travel team reeled off four straight victories to move into second place in the Connecticut Summer Baseball League standings.

The Lightning crushed Redding, 9-0, Monday at Redding behind the powerful right arm of pitcher Dan Gustafson, who threw the first complete-game shutout in Lightning history. He yielded only four singles and one walk as his catcher, Rob Andreotta, fielded a beautiful game without a passed ball.

And making several astonishing plays, the Lightning backed up Gustafson with arguably the best defensive game in the team’s three-year history.

Rightfielder Pat Thornberg raced to right center to make a remarkable one-hand catch to prevent an extra-base hit … leftfielder Sean Dardine threw a strike to Andreotta to cut down a Redding runner at the plate … and center fielder Alex Roche snared three well-hit fly balls.

The infield was equally impressive, turning two double plays.

With Newtown ahead 3-0 in the fifth inning and a Redding runner at first base with no outs, third baseman Ryan Daignault pounced on a grounder, threw to second baseman Ben Stoller, who made a beautiful pivot and throw to first baseman Kaleb Rowe for the double play. And with a runner at first in the sixth inning, shortstop Nicky Sajovic grabbed a line drive in the hole and alertly pegged a strike to first baseman Michael Scharfenberg for the game-ending double play.

The Lightning bats pounded out 10 hits off crafty Redding pitcher Liam Rooney. Rowe led the onslaught with a pair of doubles (one that probably should have been ruled a homer) and a single. Gustafson smacked two hits and drove in two runs and Stoller blasted two hits and knocked in a run. Roche drilled an RBI double on the ground over third base and John Lebinski and Andreotta slapped RBI singles.

In a 7-2 win over Southbury, Daignault hurled three shutout innings to pick up the first win in his three-year Lightning career. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out two. Relief pitcher Troy Larsen pitched well in the fourth and the fifth, allowing one unearned run while striking out three batters.

When Larsen tired in the sixth inning with Southbury runners at second and third with no outs, Gustafson strode to the mound and struck out the side to end the game.

The Lightning offense blasted 13 hits, led by two hits each by Tyler Gibney, Rowe, Dardine and Stoller. Stoller ripped an RBI single to left to score Dardine and give the Lightning a 1-0 first-inning lead. In the third inning, Larsen reached on a fielder’s choice, moved to second on a Gibney single, took third on a wild pitch and scored on an error. Dardine then crushed a two-RBI single for a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, Gustafson walked while Scharfenberg and Sajovic singled to load the bases. Andreotta slapped a two-RBI single to right field for a 6-1 lead.

Thornberg ranged far into right center to make an incredible one-hand catch in right field in the third inning to spark the defense. In the first inning, Gustafson fielded a grounder, stepped on third and threw to Roche at second for a double play.

In a 6-5 win over New Milford, the Lightning rallied for three runs in the fifth and avenged an earlier extra inning loss.

The rally was fueled with four consecutive singles by Gibney, Rowe, Dardine and Gustafson as well as an error by the New Milford second baseman.

Rowe threw three no-hit innings in relief of starter Gustafson, yielding just one walk and an unearned run. And with two outs and the potential tying New Milford run on first in the sixth inning, Thornberg, the catcher, threw a strike to shortstop Tyler Gibney to nail a would-be base stealer and end the game.

Gibney and Rowe each had two hits. One of the hot-swinging Rowe’s hits was a double to the fence.

Early last week, the Lightning began their four-game winning streak by beating the scrappy Newtown Nighthawks, 8-1.

Larsen picked up the win with three shutout innings. He gave up just one single and struck out four batters, including the side in the second inning. The normally hard-throwing Larsen struck out one batter with his eephus pitch – a slow, high-arcing pitch that confuses batters by seemingly taking 10 seconds to reach the plate.

The Lightning jumped out to a 3-0 second-inning lead on singles by Gustafson and Thornberg, an RBI double by Rowe and RBI singles by Sajovic and Andreotta.

The Nighthawks made a sensational defensive play to prevent further damage in the inning. Outfielder Eric Pisani flagged down Rowe’s double and made a perfect throw to relay man Grant Ricketts. Ricketts threw a strike to catcher Eric Laaksonen, who then tagged out Thornberg at the plate.

The Lightning upped the lead to 4-0 in the third inning when Gibney walked, Dardine ripped a double to left center and Gustafson drilled an RBI single. The locals added four more runs in the fourth inning on a walk to Thornberg, singles by Sajovic and Michael Scharfenberg, a two-run single by Andreotta and an RBI groundout by Daignault.

Daignault pitched the Lightning’s final three innings, yielding just one unearned run, walking none and throwing zero wild pitches.

The Nighthawks were led by Matt Sabia, who singled and clubbed a double. Other Nighthawk hits were singles by Robert Linden and Chad Ferris.

Meanwhile, the Nighthawks have been on fire in the CSBL, winning three games and upping their record to 6-2.

Shaking off that 9-1 loss to the Lightning before the weekend started, the Nighthawks rebounded by edging New Milford (6-4), nipping Easton (12-11) and trouncing New Fairfield (11-5).

Against Easton, Laaksonen had three hits, including a double, and Sabia smashed two hits. The talented duo combined to score five runs.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Easton hit a double down the third base line to score a run. An attempt to score a second run on the play was thwarted when Linden threw the ball from left field to Laaksonen, who blocked the plate and tagged out an Easton player for the last out of the game.

Eric Pisani pitched two excellent innings for the Nighthawks.

In the win against New Milford, Dominic Scarangella, Laaksonen and Sabia combined for six strong innings on the mound. Scarangella and Brendan Peterson scored two runs each to beat New Milford.

TEAMS                           W-L    PTS

Fairfield                           8-2      16

Newtown Lightning        7-3      14

Newtown Nighthawks   6-2      12

New Milford                   4-3        8

Redding                           4-4        8

Southbury                        3-5        6

New Fairfield                  1-7        2

Easton                              0-7        0

U11

The Newtown Silver 11-year-old travel team captured third place in the Southbury Tournament with a convincing 12-5 win over Bethwood … avenging an 11-2 loss the Silver suffered earlier in the tournament.

Miles LoBuglio pitched very well, throwing hitless ball through three innings while allowing just three runners to reach base. Bethwood was able to scratch out a run in the second inning with a walk, an error and sacrifice fly. It could have been worse, except that centerfielder Michael Daubert – on that sacrifice fly – made a great diving catch and hopped to his feet to throw a strike to second baseman Mikey Burton to double off the Bethwood runner.

With the game tied 1-1, LoBuglio shut Bethwood down again in the third and fourth. Then, in the bottom of the fourth, Tom Floros and Patrick Pierce reached base with a single and a walk. LoBuglio then ripped a line drive to left center to drive in the go-ahead run.

The next two batters, Burton and Dean Lindquist, both walked and Brennan Merrick followed with a long fly ball to right field that allowed Burton to tag up from third and score. In all, Newtown picked up five runs in the fourth to put the game away.

Daubert came in to close the game in the sixth and set down the Bethwood batters in order with two strikeouts and a pop up to Max Temple at short.

U9 (Fire)

After a 9-4 loss to New Milford opened the District 4 Tournament in Danbury, the Newtown Fire 9-year-old travel team kept its championship hopes alive with wins over Southbury (19-1) and Danbury (4-2).

In the loss to New Milford, the scored three runs in the first inning, but could only manage one more run during the game against the hard hitting and hard throwing New Milford team.

Luke Rustici and Michael Parker pitched well for the Fire, recording four of the five strikeouts. Jack Procaccini and Michael Doyle, the left side of the Newtown infield, played solid D, while Dave Matthews did well at the plate and on base as the leadoff hitter, going 1-for-2 with a double, a swiped bag, and a run scored.

In the win over Southbury, the Fire broke open the game in the third inning by batting around in the order and getting big RBI hits from Nick Samuelson and Sam Czel. The Fire also played great defense, led by CJ Dunn in the infield and Declan Sullivan in the outfield.

But the story of the game was Newtown’s exceptional pitching – starting with Rustici (four Ks over two innings with no runs), bridged by Dave Matthews (retired the side with three strikeouts) and closed by Devin Luzietti (one strikeout to preserve the win in the fourth).

In the win over Danbury on Monday, the Fire put a run up in the first with Doyle’s RBI hit with two outs. The locals, though, would not score again until the fourth when Parker was issued a free pass with the bases loaded.

Two much needed insurance runs were added in the sixth when Dunn stole home and Procaccini scored on a perfectly placed  sacrifice bunt by Sullivan.

Parker, Matthews and Rustici pitched tough, working through some jams during the game and collectively striking out 10 batters. However, in the last inning Danbury did not give up and put the winning run on first before Czel caught the last out on a hit to left field.

U9 (Bombers)

The Newtown Bombers 9-year-old travel team ran its record to 4-0 before dropping a tough, 8-5, decision to Trumbull in the semi-finals of the Monroe Little League Tournament.

The Bombers had topped Ansonia (12-0) and Westport (10-5) to advance to the semi-finals on Tuesday and despite a two-run single by Glen Damota, a run-scoring single by Erik Street, and a double by Alex Daignault the locals bowed out of the tournament.

In the win over Ansonia, the Bombers took a early lead in the first when Josh Houle led off with a walk and was driven home on a Matt Maturo single. Maturo later scored to put the locals up, 2-0. In the fourth, Maturo singled in two more runs to get the offense moving again.

In the fifth, Kyle McGrath led off with a walk, stole second and then scored on a Matthew Elias single. Elias later scored when Eric Street doubled to deep left field. Alex Klang followed with a walk, Zach Aumeller singled and Griffin Davis singled to left to load the bases and Chris Calo doubled in two runs.

Daignault (three strikeouts) and Aumeller (two strikeouts) combined on a two-hitter. Glenn Damota and Joe Carrino played well in the field.

In the win last Saturday, Westport jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first innings but the Bombers soon rallied.

The locals began their rally in the bottom of the second inning with hits by Tim Vander Have and Alex Daignault, pulling to within one. Westport added a run in the third, but the Bombers took the lead in the bottom of the fourth as Daignault singled, stole second and scored on an Elias single. Klang doubled in Elias and Calo doubled in Klang to put the Bombers ahead, 5-4.

Damota singled Calo to third, but both runners were left stranded.

The Bombers exploded for four runs in the fifth as Jared Brady walked, Houle doubled, Maturo singled (two RBI), Street singled and Daignault doubled (two RBI).

Klang, McGrath and Houle combined on the mound for the win. Houle closed it out with five strikeouts in three innings of work.

In the loss to Trumbull, Vander Have and Daignault combined on the mound as Newtown fell into an early hole. Houle got Newtown on the board by walking and then stealing second, third and home to cut the lead to two.

In the third inning, the Bombers found themselves down by five but fought back when Street singled in McGrath.