NEWTON – The Indians baseball team overcame a late comeback from Ansonia pushing across the winning run in the bottom of the 5th beating the Tigers 4-3 to remain undefeated at 2-0 in the WOAC and 7-1 overall.
Ansonia coach Dustin Hecht was feeling pretty good about the way Ansonia was playing despite a 3-game losing streak after the way they battled Versailles on Monday night.
But Newton struck big to start the game plating 3 runs in the bottom half of the 1st inning.
Sophomore Austin Tippie hit a long sacrifice fly to left field scoring fellow sophomore Rhett Koffer to take a 1-0 lead. Freshman Cole Alexander scored the 2nd run by stealing home on a play toward 2nd base and then sophomore Will Bowser singled to left field to score senior Ty Schauer for a quick 3-0 lead for the Indians against a strong Ansonia pitcher Keegen Weiss.
“Our guys have been pitching really well this year, but Weiss took one to the shoulder blade last night and I think that was a little bit of a factor in the way things started out tonight and made it a little bit tough, but he was very competitive. He’s a dog when he gets out there and he’ll fight all the way to the end,” coach Hecht would say after the game.
Ansonia scored a run in the top of the 2nd inning to make the score 3-1 and that’s where the game stood until the top of 5th inning.
Tiger sophomore Cainan Robinson scored a run at the top of the 5th inning, and they pushed another run across the plate on a sacrifice fly from Keegen Weiss scoring Lander Shives to tie the game at 3 each.
The Indians though answered right away in the bottom of the inning when Austin Tippie hit a double that scored Cole Alexander taking the lead 4-3.
Ansonia was unable to generate a threat in the 6th and went down in order in the 7th inning as Newton held on for the 4-3 WOAC win.
After the game Newton coach Jordan Kopp was pleased with his team and how they responded after the late game rally by Ansonia.
“The Weiss kid is a really good pitcher and if you would have told me before the game that we’re going to get nine hits when we haven’t swung the bats really well of recent, I’d take that. But when you get nine hits you expect to score some runs. I told the guys at the end I thought we left a lot of runners on base, left runs out there and made some mistakes and struggled some with our small ball stuff, which is something we take a lot of pride in. But I’m really proud of the kids when things aren’t working, you know and it’s a close game to really come through and I was happy how we finished up,” Kopp stated.
Coach Hecht feels his team was right there and has been competitive in every game and with a break here or there could have a few more victories in the win column.
“Yeah, that’s kind of how our seasons went. We’ve been really competitive almost every game we’ve been in. Been right there. Just a couple plays here and there could turn the whole season around. Tonight was a tough one, we came out a little flat which was a little disappointing. We had a real competitive game with for Versailles last night and I really expected that energy to carry over and we just we didn’t come out with that fire today,” Hecht offered up.
There is still plenty of season for the Tigers to make some noise and Hecht is counting on his seniors to lead the squad the rest of the way.
“So far it’s been a team effort this year and once our top gets going our bottom comes right along we’re hitting and putting it together. That top is a lot of senior leadership that carries right on to those lower guys. I’ve got four seniors, two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen so we have a good mix in the lineup,” Hecht shared.
The Tigers fell to 3-6 overall and 2-2 in the WOAC.
Newton was able to jump start their season by traveling to Florida where they would go 3-1.
“We got to experience great weather on our trip, and we are thankful that our school administration and school board help us out and gave us this opportunity that not a lot of schools get,” Kopp said.
“We take everybody, all 20 guys and got in four varsity games and three JV games and played some good competition,” he added.
We are a young team, but we have three arms that we’re really confident in. Senior Ty Shauer, he’s a lefty and has a handful of wins and gives us some experience. Austin Tippy a sophomore and kind of a hard throwing guy, who maybe didn’t have his best stuff today, but man he competed really well, and we have a freshman pitcher Cole Alexander who has had a start … but we’re hopeful that this week he’s going to get another if the weather holds out. So, we’re really excited about the three arms we have, and we think those three guys can keep us in pretty much any league game we play,” Kopp concluded.
