Perfect Game Sends Newtown Softball to Championships

As the Newtown High softball team stood just 18 outs from the South-West Conference title game, left fielder Monica Macchiarulo stepped into the batter's box to deliver what coach Bob Guerrera called a "tremendous emotional uplift."

Facing New Fairfield starter Cynthia Barata, Macchiarulo swung at a sharp fastball and lined it into left field for a leadoff triple. Instantaneously, her teammates erupted with joy and the fans at Stratford's DeLuca Field buzzed with excitement.

Macchiarulo scored on a single just two batters later. With ace pitcher Katie Bowen starting for the top-seeded Nighthawks, the run was all the support they would need.

"She turned the momentum right in our favor right away with that triple," Guerrera said. "We know we're going to get the run in, try to build on top of that, and let the ship kind of run its course."

It also helped that Bowen tossed her second perfect game of the season, striking out 12 of the 21 batters, as Newtown cruised to a 4-0 victory over New Fairfield in the conference semifinals.

After Bowen singled home Macchiarulo in the first inning to give Newtown a 1-0 lead, the Nighthawks capitalized off two fielding errors in their next at-bat. New Fairfield mishandled consecutive bunt attempts, loading the bases with no outs for Macchiarulo.

The freshman left fielder drove in first baseman Coleen Cunningham with a sacrifice fly, and Bowen drew a bases-loaded walk just two batters later to extend Newtown's lead to 3-0.

Judging by the way Bowen was pitching, the lead seemed much more. After Newtown's two-run inning, Bowen struck out the next eight batters and only six of New Fairfield's outs traveled past the pitcher's circle.

"With your pitcher out there throwing perfect games and you're playing flawless defense -- it's been the formula that has worked for us all season long," Guerrera said.

Macchiarulo also jump-started Newtown's (21-0, 16-0) run in the fourth inning, as she singled with one out and promptly stole second base. After Barata retired the next batter on a ground out, Bowen smacked a run-scoring double to center field to push the lead to 4-0.

Macchiarulo (3-for-3) and Bowen (2-for-3) accounted for nearly all of Newtown's offense as they combined to go 5-for-6 with four RBI and three runs scored.

Bowen's first perfect game came back on May 5 in a 15-0 win over Joel Barlow and she tossed a one-hit shutout in a 7-0 victory against New Fairfield less than two weeks ago.

Afterward, she said the perfect game was not on her mind. Instead, she and teammates were focused on Friday's conference championship game against Lauralton Hall.

"I'm honestly not thinking about the perfect game at all," Bowen said. "This is my first year being a starting pitcher, I'm not going after any records."

The Nighthawks will be making their first trip to the SWC title game since 2008, when they lost to Masuk. Despite being one of the most consistent programs in the SWC, Newtown has never won a conference title.

The last time Newtown played Lauralton Hall was on May 20, when the Nighthawks won 4-0.

"What a tough game. We were lucky enough to go down there and beat them the first time, but all bets are off," Guerrera said. "We told all our kids, 'This is the second season today. Tomorrow's going to be the end of the second season.' We played 20 games to get through the first one and three to get through the second one."