Nighthawks Knocked Out Of Playoffs

The South-West Conference playoff seeding had Weston (14-6, 9-4) as the sixth seed and Newtown (15-5, 9-4) as the third seed, giving the Nighthawks a first-round home game Monday afternoon.

What the seedings failed to show was that both teams held identical conference records, and the Trojans had won 6-3 in Newtown earlier in the season.

"We came in thinking they were the best team out there," Newtown head coach Matt Memoli said.  "We wanted to handle our business and treat it like another day at the park."

This time, with the stakes even higher than before, Weston proved it was again up to the challenge, knocking Newtown out of the playoffs with a convincing 7-1 win.

"Disappointing...That's the main word that comes to mind," Memoli said.  "We couldn't put our best game out there -- from the first pitch to the last."

The Nighthawks looked to their ace Joe Fedak, who was 6-1 in the season, to get them through the quarterfinal round but it wasn't his day.  

Weston jumped on him early with leadoff hitter Peter Krist lacing a double off the leftfield wall before no. three hitter Mike McDonald sent a Fedak offering out to the same side, but this time, over the wall for a two-run home run and an early 3-0 lead in the first inning.

"When you can jump on a team early that's good," Weston coach Frank Fedeli said.  "I'm sure they didn't expect us to come out like that, (Fedak) is a good pitcher."

Weston added a fourth run in the first on a double-steal play.  Clean-up hitter Ben Jaffee drew a walk and then stole second base.  He advanced to third on Cody Nusbaum's single, and then came home when Nusbaum got caught in a run down trying to steal second himself.

Weston went on to score single runs in the next three innings to widen the lead. 

In the second inning center fielder Zach Forzani reached on an error, the second of the game for Newtown who would go on to commit three overall.  Krist eventually drove him in on a sacrifice fly for a 5-0 lead.

"They gave us a little extra," Fedeli said of the Nighthawks' miscues.

Newtown got on the board in the bottom of the second inning, scoring one run in a two-out rally.  Back-to-back doubles by first baseman George Zaruba and right fielder John Fracker made the score 5-1.

Fedak was knocked out of the game in the third inning when he surrendered his second long ball of the game, giving Weston a 6-1 lead.  First baseman James Jepsen drove a ball over the glove of left fielder Bryan Czel who crashed into the outfield wall, flipping over it trying to make the catch.

With the big lead, Weston's starting pitcher Nusbaum was able to settle in and throw a stress-free game.  The Trojan captain was 4-2 on the season.

"He was able to throw strikes," Fedeli said of Nusbaum.  "The kids made some nice plays.  We ran down some balls in the outfield.  When we bring our gloves we can play with anybody."

Newtown's third error in the fourth inning led to Weston seventh and final run of the game. 

The Nighthawks offense wasn't able to muster a rally as they went down in order in the third, sixth and seventh innings while stranding runners in the fourth and fifth innings.

"We didn't do it, we didn't have it," Memoli said.  "It's disappointing to work this hard to get a chance to win a conference championship and not step up on the big stage.  It tough to see our guys, especially our seniors go down like this."

The team, who had won five straight before the playoff loss, will now set its sights on the state tournament which begins next week.

"We don't want to forget this game," Memoli said.  "We can learn from this.  States is going to be an even bigger stage.  We'll get back to practice and try and get our confidence back."

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