Recap
Homers And Pitching Lift Hawk Sluggers (By Andy Hutchison of the Newtown Bee)
Immaculate 6, Newtown 7
Sandy Hook, CT — The line score sure was an odd one, considering the Nighthawks committed a handful of errors and surrendered twice as many runs as hits, but in the end, a good one for the Nighthawks on April 23. Newtown High School’s baseball team edged visiting Immaculate of Danbury 7-6, narrowly hanging on despite committing all of the game’s five errors.
Dylan Goyette and Charlie Curtis each homered to power the Nighthawks to their fourth win in six games to begin the year.
Newtown outhit Immaculate 11-3, but the Mustangs hung around and put the potential tying run on base in each of the last two innings, nearly erasing a 7-1 second-inning deficit thanks to those errors.
“We’ve played flawless defense all year. We just didn’t have the defense today,” said Newtown Coach Ian Thoesen, whose team’s miscues in the field led to five unearned runs.
The mistakes were overshadowed by strong pitching from starter Will Burns and reliever Zach Kluger, along with a potent early-game offense that racked up four runs in the first and three more in the second.
“We did two of the three today,” said Thoesen, referring to hitting, pitching, and defense. “But we picked each other up — it’s baseball.”
Burns lasted five-plus innings but had to exit due to maxing out his pitch count at 112. He struck out 11, walked three, and allowed three hits. Kluger struck out two in a pair of innings of work.
A couple of errors, a double, a walk, a wild pitch, and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded pushed three runs across for the Mustangs in the sixth before Kluger escaped.
After the Mustangs seized a 1-0 lead in the top half of the opening inning, the Nighthawks plated four runs in the bottom half. Charlie Eppers was hit by a pitch leading off and Jack Petersen singled before Goyette put the Hawks on top for good with a three-run blast to center field. One out later, Curtis belted a solo shot to left for a 4-1 lead.
Burns pitched around an error to strike out the side in the second. Newtown seemingly put the game out of reach in the last of the second. Newtown began the frame with the top of its order up once again, and the table setters again did their thing. Eppers and Petersen each singled and Goyette walked to load the bases. CJ Demers delivered with a two-run single, and Charlie Curtis drove home the seventh run with a sacrifice fly.
The Mustangs scored twice in the third to make it 7-3 before chipping away in the sixth to make things interesting late in the game.
Eight Nighthawks combined for their 11 hits, and it has been a team effort throughout the campaign.
“We’ve got a good team. It’s going to take everybody to accomplish our goals for the year,” said Thoesen, who said in the preseason that the team is striving to win South-West Conference and state championships.