The Seymour softball team ran into a Newtown juggernaut Tuesday, losing to the visiting Nighthawks 9 – 1.
Newtown raised its record to 3 – 0 while Seymour dropped to 2 – 2.
“We have a lot of things we need to work on,” Seymour coach Ken Pereiras said. “We have to be smarter. We’re not making plays and we have trouble fielding the ball.”
It was a scoreless game for the first three innings.
Wildcats junior righty Stephanie Burt had full command on the mound with one walk and two strikeouts at this point. She allowed only two hits at this juncture as well, both coming in the third inning, an infield tap by junior Colleen Cunningham and liner to left field by freshman Monica Macchianulo.
Seymour also made the plays defensively early in the game, with junior catcher Maggie Crocamo gunning down sophomore pinch runner Nora Murphy on an attempted steal. Junior shortstop Kim Ferris applied the tag for the out.
In the top of the fourth, Newtown’s Kate Bowen led off with a single up the middle and took second with a groundout. She eventually scored an unearned run on back-to-back errors.
The floodgates opened in the top of the fifth with the Nighthawks sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs on eight hits.
Following a running catch — one of three by Seymour’s Amanda Willette — Newtown’s Monica Macchianulo started things out with a bunt single. Newtown then tattooed the ball with Burt’s shoulder aching.
Burt ended up pitching 4 1/3 innings and allowed eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits with three walks, one intentional, and two strikeouts.
“Her shoulder was bothering her and she wasn’t pitching as hard as she normally does,” Pereiras said.
Sophomore lefty Kelly Ferris relieved Burt and after allowing two straight hits, she settled down. The southpaw Ferris pitched 2 2/3 innings and allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
Freshman Grace Nisbet and junior Emily Coyne had singles in the fifth and sixth innings respectively for Seymour. The Wildcats scored in the bottom of the seventh.
Sara Molin led off with a triple over the right fielder’s head and scored on Carissa Wasikowski’s double to right.
“I thought the fourth inning when we made two errors hurt us and in the fifth inning, they hit the ball,” Pereiras said. “Newtown is one of the better teams in the state.”