Newtown High School's baseball team clawed back from a five-run deficit to pull to within two and had the potential tying run in scoring position in its final at bat, but that was as close as the Nighthawks would get, falling 6-4 to visiting Hall of West Hartford, in the Class LL state tournament's first round, on May 31.

The seventh-seeded Nighthawks saw their season come to an end, and the No. 26 Warriors moved on to the second round.

After Newtown's Mason Melillo doubled home the game tying run in the first inning, the Warriors put up the next five runs and led 6-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Dan Pearson homered to make it 6-2, and Melillo knocked in Czel with a single, bringing the Hawks to within 6-3.

Newtown's defense kept it a three-run deficit in the sixth as left fielder Sam Czel threw to catcher Pete Debona to nab a base runner attempting to score.

The Hawks went down quietly in the bottom of the sixth, but that certainly wasn't the case in the last of the seventh. Jason Hebner reached on a bunt single and scored on another Melillo RBI single. Jack Procaccini hit a two-out, full-count offering into the outfield for a single to put runners on the corners. A wild pitch moved Procaccini to second base, and Melillo stayed put at third. Eugene Citrano worked the count to two balls and two strikes and put the ball into play, but flied out to center to end the game.

"We didn't go down without a fight," Melillo said.

Newtown Coach Matt Memoli was pleased with the way his team battled, but was disappointed that the Nighthawks couldn't keep Hall from building an early lead, and that his team took four-plus innings to get going offensively.

"This is when it really counts and we just didn't get it done today," said Memoli, adding that his team was eliminated in the first round of the South-West Conference tournament as well - the start of a disappointing postseason after a stellar regular campaign in which the Hawks went 15-5. "We didn't step up on the big stage."

Memoli credited Hall lefthander Chase Jeter for mixing his changeup and fastball offerings to keep the Hawks off-balanced.

The Newtown coach acknowledged that his team had a strong season - "We had a group of good high school players," he said - and added that they were a pleasure to work with during the course of the spring.

"We did a lot of positive things this year," Melillo, a senior, noted. "It's a great group of guys - always a great time coming out to the ball field, working for three hours."