Ridgefield Stuns Norwalk, 3-2, To Reach 15-Year-Old Babe Ruth State Final

Anger is a powerful motivator on any level.

Danny Lake and Josh Newborn stole home on the same at-bat in the top of the eighth inning, as a fired-up group of Ridgefielders stunned Norwalk, 3-2, Sunday in the losers' bracket final of the 15-year-old Babe Ruth state tournament.

It was a stunning turnaround from the earlier meeting between the teams, when Norwalk romped to a 19-2 victory, but the Ridgefield players felt Norwalk ran up the score and they were eager to make their opponents pay on Sunday at Kiwanis Field.

Ridgefield, which has won three in a row to come out of the losers' bracket, advanced to Monday's championship game against Stamford (5:45 p.m. at Kiwanis).

Making Sunday's win even sweeter is the fact that Norwalk beat Ridgefield in the losers' bracket final last year.

"They're going home and we're playing Monday," Ridgefield coach Chris Molyneaux said with a look of glee in his eyes.

Newborn turned in a clutch performance on the mound, allowing one run and four hits over seven innings with nine strikeouts and five walks to earn the victory.

"They were up by more than 10 (runs) and they were still sac bunting and sac flying and stealing, and it's considered low class if you do that when you're ahead by a lot of runs," Newborn said.

"Definitely the greatest feeling," Lake added. "We didn't have our number one starting pitcher that day, so I knew it would have been a good game once Josh was starting and he came in and threw a hell of a game."  

With one out in the eighth on Sunday, Lake reached on a fielder's choice and moved up on Newborn's walk. The runners than advanced to second and third on a critical wild pitch by Norwalk reliever Rich Henderson.

Lake broke for the plate while Henderson was in his motion and slid in safely as the throw sailed past catcher Mike Giordano.

"The pitcher was from the windup and he was a lefty, so it was easy to get a good read off him," Lake said. "Once he started his windup, I was going to go." 

Since the play worked once, Molyneaux figured he'd try it again. Newborn, who went to third on the previous wild pitch, started for the plate before Henderson began his wideup.

This time, the pitcher stepped off the mound, but Henderson's throw home was low and Newborn slid in safely under the tag to make it 3-1.

"(Henderson) was ignoring the guy on third base," Molyneaux said. "He didn't look over to (third). I could have ate dinner by the time he went to the plate."

Newborn did his best work with runners on base. In four different innings, Norwalk got a man to second against Newborn but scored in only one of them. That came in the second, when leadoff hitter James Restivo walked with one out, stole second and came home on Mike Parlanti's double into the left-field corner.

Ridgefield pulled even in the fourth as Jeff Rohrer cued a bases-loaded single into shallow right.

The eventual winners then ran into some bad luck, as Patrick Molyneaux, who got the final two outs on the mound in the bottom of the eighth, hit a hot smash to first base for an unassisted double play.

"We just wanted to come and stick it to them today and show them that we can play just as well as they can," Newborn added. 

The pitchers continued to dominate the taut, well-played game. Norwalk threatened to win it in the seventh, but Newborn escaped a bases-loaded threat to send the contest into extra innings.

"I left it all on the field because if we lost, it would have been our last Babe Ruth game ever," Newborn added. "We want to make it a good memory."

Ridgefield closer Brad Rosenfield started the bottom of the eighth, but gave up a walk and two hits, including an RBI single by Juan Colon that pulled Norwalk within 3-2.

Chris Molyneaux made another shift, bringing in his son to pitch.

With runners on the corners, Norwalk tried to pull a page out of Ridgefield's book. After Colon stole second, pinch-runner Kenny Francois took off  from third.

But unlike its opponent, Ridgefield executed the play perfectly, as Francois was nailed at the plate. Patrick Molyneaux then got Restivo to ground to short to send his club into the final.

"There's four kids on the team that played 15s last year for me—Molyneaux, Rohrer, Newborn and Lake—and they all came back," Chris Molyneaux said. "They could have played AAU ball, but they came back because they want a state championship."