Baseball: Bridgewater-Raritan's offense explodes in North 2 Group 4 quarterfinal win
BRIDGEWATER – Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s baseball team had an extremely focused and productive batting practice Thursday afternoon before its North 2 Group 4 quarterfinal with Hunterdon Central. That approach carried very successfully into the game.
The No. 2 seed Panthers scored a stunning 19-8 mercy-rule, 4 1/2-inning win over defending sectional champion and No. 7 seed Hunterdon Central (13-10).
The Panthers’ 22nd win of the season set a program single-season record. That milestone was buried beneath a ton of offensive numbers.
“We barreled everything, you could tell they were locked in and really looked forward to the game,” B-R coach Max Newill said. “They took batting practice with a purpose today and that carried over into the game, obviously. Everybody hit the ball hard.”
The Panthers had 16 hits in all. Senior Michael Fattore went 4-for-4 with seven RBI that included a two-run homer in the third that made it 12-5 after the Red Devils had whittled their deficit to 10-5.
Center fielder James Turchi went 4-for-4 with four runs scored and two RBI.
Eight Panthers had at least one RBI. Devin Goldberg and Matt Moore had two RBI apiece.
“I was especially happy that I did it when it mattered,” Fattore said. “The game plan was to get ahead and get pitches we liked.”
What it means
The Panthers (22-6) earned a berth in the section semifinals, their first since 2019. The Panthers will play host to third-seeded Woodbridge (20-5) Tuesday at 4 p.m. Woodbridge fell to Central in last year’s section final.
Woodbridge beat No. 11 Watchung Hills 3-2 Thursday in their quarterfinal. The Barrons broke a 2-2 deadlock with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
First-pitch homer
Hunterdon Central’s Andrew Nguyen hit the first pitch of the game over the left field fence. B-R, however, took control with a six-run first inning.
“When the wind blows out here it’s a small field, it’s a pretty good-sized high school field,” Newill said.
“When we scored those runs in the first I knew we would need more than that to shut them down. It was a tough day to pitch:”
Numbers
Bridgewater-Raritan has now scored 247 runs in 28 games, well above the old program best of 201 in 29 games played in 2010.
“This is our best offensive team ever,” said Newill.
They said it
Turchi said, “Everyone was into it, it was a team effort, we locked in the moment we left school and got to the field. It was a team effort today. We all expected it to be a back-and-forth type of all the way game.”
Central coach Kevin Cuozzo on B-R’s offense, “We made some mistakes, but to their credit there were no easy outs. They hit the ball.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Baseball: Bridgewater-Raritan's offense explodes in playoff win
