This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Bobcats Rally Comes Up Short

Brookfield Falls To Newtown For Second Time

Newtown (7-2, 3-1) starting pitcher Chris Haylon, a junior, knows he has a good defense behind him so his game plan is to throw strikes and let the opposing team put the ball in play.  In the game against Brookfield (3-5, 0-4) that was rained out Monday and played on Tuesday in bitter cold conditions, Haylon did what works best for him and got Newtown another win.

Haylon pitched a complete-game five-hitter while striking out two and walking two in an efficient 5-3 victory over the Bobcats.

"That's how I pitch," Haylon said of letting the defense play behind him.  "Rosey (catcher Brandon Rosenberger) called a great game.  Just throw strikes and get a lot of ground ball outs."

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Brookfield scored one run in the first before Haylon settled down.  Bobcats junior Ryan Berry hit a sacrifice fly, scoring junior Janco Cornelius, who had singled, for the 1-0 lead.  Haylon allowed another single in the second inning to junior David Long.  He then retired the next 13 batters he faced in a span covering the last two outs of the second inning to the first two outs in the sixth.

"Chris' main thing on the mound is letting hitters get themselves out," Newtown coach Matt Memoli said of his winning pitcher.  "His pitch count is low.  He throws first pitch strikes, he stays low in the zone and he can throw his changeup for a strike which is a deceptive pitch."

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Newtown tied the score 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning when senior captain Kyle Kromberg drew a walk, stole second base and advanced to third on a single by senior Andy Lapple.  Kromberg came home on a throwing error by Brookfield catcher Evan Mozingo.

In the second inning Newtown took a 2-1 lead when sophomore Evan Noonan delivered the first of his two run scoring singles, both coming with two outs in an inning.  Junior Ryan Tita scored on the single by Noonan after getting on base when Bobcats starting pitcher Mike Palicz hit him with a pitch. 

"The difference in the game is our guy walked five or six guys and a hit a batter and their guy didn't," Brookfield coach Dan McKee said.  "His (Palicz) stuff is working, he just has to bear down and finish off the inning."

Base on balls and another error doomed Palicz again in the fourth inning.  Kromberg drew a one-out walk, his third of the game and stole second and third base.  Lapple followed him with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch while Kromberg scored for a 3-1 lead.  Lapple scored an unearned run to make it 4-1 when third baseman Rob O'Neil threw away what should have been the final out.

The infield duo of Noonan and Tita teamed up to make the score 5-1 in the fifth inning when Tita knocked a one-out and single and stole second ahead of Noonan's two-out run scoring base hit.

"Evan's only a sophomore and he's been thrown right in the mix," Memoli said of Noonan.  "Those two-out situations are huge, we ended up needing those runs."

The Bobcats made Haylon work to end the game.  With two outs in the sixth senior Tom Pisarick ended Brookfield's 0-for-13 drought with a single.  He advanced to second base on a wild pitch and was driven in by Berry to make the score 5-2.  They had a chance to do more damage but Palicz' deep drive to left was knocked down by the heavy wind blowing in for the final out.

"The guy's battled back," McKee said.  "The ball off the bat was gone.  The flag was blowing in."

Palicz pitched a complete game giving up five runs, two of them earned on five hits, seven walks, a hits batsman and two strikeouts.  He pitched a one, two, three sixth inning to give Brookfield one final chance in the seventh.

Mozingo led off with a walk and Long followed with his second single of the game.  Haylon got a pop-up and a strikeout before junior Austin Yusko beat out an infield hit that scored a run when Noonan's throw got away to make it 5-3.  With runners on second and third and two out, Haylon threw another first pitch strike to get another groundout to end the game.

"Day in and day out he takes control of the game," Haylon's coach said.  "It was a pleasure to watch."

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?