Baseball: Bridgewater-Raritan Wins Somerset County Tournament, 10-7, over Ridge
By Guy Kipp,
2024-05-25
Credits: Guy Kipp
BRIDGEWATER, NJ -- A day after setting a school record for victories in a season, Bridgewater-Raritan ended a 28-year drought by winning its first Somerset County Tournament baseball championship since 1996 with a 10-7 victory over Ridge on Friday night at TD Bank Park.
In a game that at times had all the aesthetic qualities of a rugby scrum, top-seeded Bridgewater's ability to capitalize on the errors and walks from third-seeded Ridge combined with the Panthers' ability to weather some of their own miscues and command lapses to make a huge difference in the final outcome.
Both starting pitchers -- left-hander Owen Crimmins of Bridgewater-Raritan (25-3) and right-hander Ben Larner of Ridge (20-8) -- were able to escape troublesome jams in the first inning, then the Red Devils scored two unearned runs in the third inning on Zack Kucerka's two-run single to center on an 0-2 pitch to give Ridge a 2-1 lead.
But, when Ridge handed Bridgewater some opportunities in the bottom of the third, the Panthers barged through and broke the dam wide open with five runs. A leadoff walk to Matt Fattore, a double to the right-center field gap by Matt Cichocki and a walk to J.R. Rosado loaded the bases for the Panthers for the second time in the first three innings. Ridge righty Andrew Reynolds came on in relief, got a called third strike against his first batter, and then got a groundball to shortstop for a potential force play, but the throw to second got past the second baseman, allowing two runs to score to give B-R a 3-2 lead.
Ridge had put together 19 wins in its last 21 games by playing clean baseball, free of walks and miscues. But the Red Devils' inability to play clean games against Bridgewater hurt them in the regular season, and it did so again on Friday night. Joe Spirra followed with a push bunt between the mound and first base that went for an RBI single and a 4-2 Panther lead. On Michael Taylor's subsequent single to right-center, Ridge got an out at the plate on a relay from CF Nick Sellitti to first baseman Kucerka to catcher Nick Rossi for the second out. Taylor finished the night 4-for-4 out of the No. 9 spot in the Panthers' batting order.
The next batter, Devin Goldberg, hit a groundball up the middle that was fielded, but all hands were safe when a race to the second bag failed to beat Taylor there for a potential force. Matthew Lehberger followed with a grounder in the 5/6 hole that went for an RBI on an infield hit, with a second run scoring when the long throw across the diamond got past the first baseman.
A combination of two walks, two errors and two wild pitches produced two more runs for Bridgewater in the bottom of the fourth for an 8-2 lead. But Ridge got back in the game with four runs in the top of the fifth on four walks, an RBI single by Reynolds and a two-run error on an attempt to get a force play at home plate.
Crimmins allowed just two hits in 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts, but he walked six batters and threw 91 pitches before being replaced in the fifth inning.
At a point when Ridge could have seized the momentum after its four-run top of the fifth, the Panthers answered with two runs in the home half of the fifth, which began with another single by Lehberger, who scored when Fattore clubbed an 0-1 breaking pitch to the deepest part of center field for an RBI triple. He came in to score on Cichocki's sacrifice fly to give B-R a 10-6 lead.
"The triple was on either a slider or a curve away and I tried to hit a hard line drive," said Fattore, a three-year starter. "We've been a very good team all year, and we're a bunch of grinders. We love the pressure and we love the moment."
In a game that included a total of 15 walks -- eight by Bridgewater pitchers and seven by Ridge pitchers -- Bridgewater-Raritan's ace closer Cory Rible didn't allow any bases on balls on a night when both teams were dealing with a home plate umpire whose strike zone decidedly favored the hitters. Rible went the final 2 2/3 innings, allowing one hit and one run, striking out three. In the seventh, Ridge got a run against him after Kieran Callanan tripled beyond the reach of RF Frankie Verano and came in on a wild pitch.
In 30 1/3 innings this season, Rible has struck out 38 batters and walked one -- and the one walk he's allowed was an intentional pass.
"This was not the prettiest of games, but we competed for all seven innings," said Bridgewater-Raritan coach Max Newill, who is in his 16th season at the school. "We said before the game that, for a while, the defense and the pitching have been carrying us, but now it's time to win a game with our offense. Our pitchers tonight were uncharacteristically wild, but we swung the bats well enough to overcome it."
Considering its pedigree and the universal respect the program commands, it may surprise many to know that Bridgewater-Raritan was making its first appearance in an SCT final since 2012.
"We've been to the semifinals something like 10 times in 13 years," Newill said. "If you keep knocking at the door, they'll eventually let you in, or, eventually, you'll break it down. It's just a matter of time."
Ridge, which has been in the last four SCT finals and last won it in 2022, has allowed more than seven runs in a game just three times this season -- twice against Bridgewater-Raritan.
"We just didn't do a lot of the things you need to do to win a game tonight, and, unfortunately, we didn't do all those things all at once," said Ridge coach Tom Blackwell, who is in his 19th season. "We scored two runs in the third to take the lead, but then they came back and had the big inning, which is what good teams do."
Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge will now turn their respective attentions back to the NJSIAA Section 2, Group 4 tournament, where Bridgewater is the top seed and will host Edison in the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, and third-seeded Ridge will host 11th-seeded Bayonne (the defending sectional champion) in the quarterfinal round the same day.
Should Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge each win two more sectional tournament games, they would face each other for a fourth time this season in the sectional final on Monday, June 3.
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