Rebels Beat Sewar Rats For Fall Ball Title

The Newtown Rebels defeated the Newtown Sewer Rats 7-5 to win the U13 Fall Baseball Championship at Sandy Hook’s Walnut Tree Field on Saturday.

Trailing 5-4 in the final inning with two outs left in their season and no one on base, the Rebels rallied for three runs to win. It was the 10th time during the season that the Rebels came from behind to win. Thee local club finished the season with a 12-3 record, including three straight playoff wins.

The Sewer Rats scored first in the opening inning when Michael Daubert walked, stole second, moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on an error. The Rebels’ responded with walks by Ryan Daignault and Ben Stoller, but Sewer Rats’ catcher Mike Newman threw a strike to prevent Daignault from stealing second base and pitcher Daubert retired the next two Rebels batters. In the second inning, the Rebels’ Austin Raftery reached on a two-base error and Greg Hennessey walked. Tyler Gibney crushed a line-drive triple down the left-field line to put the Rebels ahead 2-1.

Pitchers Raftery and Brandon Marks shut out the Rats in the second and third innings, and the Rebels added two more runs in the third. Eric Pisani walked, stole second and moved to third on a grounder by Mike Burton. Andrei Ruscoe walked, and Pisani and Ruscoe scored on errors. In the fourth inning, Stoller ripped a line-drive single to left field and John Hampford walked, but Rats pitcher Joe Davis got out of the jam without yielding a run. The Rats then narrowed the Rebels’ lead to 4-2 when Joe Davis smacked a single up the middle, stole second and scored on an error. The Rebels’ Stoller threw a hitless shutout inning in the fifth and then returned to first base for a wild sixth inning. The Rats’ Daubert singled, Newman walked and Davis reached on an error by the shortstop. Daubert tried to score from second on the error, so the shortstop, Gibney, threw home and caught Daubert between home plate and third base. The Rebels threw the ball away during the subsequent rundown, allowing Daubert to score, and then threw wildly past third base in an attempt to nail Newman. The ball continued past the left fielder, who was backing up the play, and Newman and Davis scored. The Rebels, who often during the regular season committed a maximum of two errors per game, were charged with four errors on the unusually sloppy play. The Rebels came into the dugout disheartened, trailing 5-4 and wondering whether they had thrown away a dream season. But, with one out, the team’s batting star and leader, Stefan Hennessey, revived

the team, clubbing a long double over the head of the centerfielder. Hennessey moved to third on a wild pitch and Marks walked and stole second. Hampford then rapped a ground ball that was thrown into left field in an attempt to nail Hennessey off third. Hennessey scored the tying run, while Marks moved to third and Hampford to second. Raftery, who had been a clutch batter and pitcher all year, had two strikes on him and then slapped a single to center for the go-ahead run. Greg Hennessey, who played a fearless left field throughout the season, reached first on an RBI  fielder’s choice that scored Hampford with an insurance run. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Hennessey took the mound with the title on the line. He struck out the first batter, and then Nick

Swenson walked. Dean Lindquist came to the plate as the tying run and battled Hennesey, ripping a hard drive down the right-field line. Right fielder Eric Pisani ran toward the line and reached out to make a nice one-handed catch to rob Lindquist. Hennessey struck out the final batter, and the Rebels were champs.