Baseball: Previewing the Bergen County championship game

DEMAREST — In the home dugout, in search of its first Bergen County baseball title in 44 years and second overall, say hello to the Cardinals of Westwood.

In the visiting dugout, a program seeking a record 12th Bergen championship, welcome back to the Green Knights of St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, the No. 4 seed, and No. 3 Westwood were semifinal winners last Saturday, and they’ll return to Demarest this Saturday and square off at noon in the final of the 65th Bergen County Tournament.

“It’s what it’s all about,” St. Joseph coach Mark Cieslak said after a 3-0 win over top-seeded and defending champion Don Bosco. “It’s what we strive for from the beginning of the year.”

“It’ll be a tough game,” Westwood coach Nick Urbanovich said following a 9-5 victory over No. 10 Ramapo, “but I like the guys in red.”

The matchup will feature St. Joseph’s lockdown pitching versus Westwood’s unrelenting hitting, and the semifinals certainly illustrated that.

Germosen leads St. Joseph

Senior right-hander Jeff Germosen tossed a two-hitter as St. Joseph (19-5) improved its record in May to 8-0. Germosen walked four and struck out six, including the final three batters, as the Green Knights registered their third shutout in five games. During their eight-game winning streak, they only have allowed nine runs.

“He was outstanding,” Cieslak said of Germosen. “He had command of the strike zone, threw three pitches for strikes, and attacked the whole game. He was so focused.”

Germosen had a little help from his friends. In the sixth, with a 2-0 lead and Don Bosco loading the bases with one out, St. Joseph turned a 5-2-3 double play. Junior third baseman Carter Grande fielded a hard grounder near the line, threw to senior catcher Zach Worthington for the force at home, then Worthington threw to sophomore first baseman Ryan McCabe to end the inning.

“I feel like my stuff was great all day,” Germosen said. “The first few innings, I pitched to contact. The deeper I got into the game, my stuff was better. I was throwing harder, hitting more spots, and my teammates have my back.”

McCabe and sophomore Brady Shust drove in key runs. McCabe’s two-out double in the first inning scored senior Brady Knuckles, who had reached on an infield single. McCabe made it 2-0 in the third with a run-scoring single to left to score Grande, who had tripled to center. Shust led off the seventh with a homer to left to make it 3-0.

“Bosco beat us twice early pretty good,” Cielslak said of two regular-season losses to the Ironmen, “so it’s a good sign of where we are in terms of our growth. So that’s what’s exciting about it.”

Westwood grinds it out

Eight starters produced at least one hit for Westwood (20-5) in the semis. The Cardinals delivered 10 hits and scored in bunches, registering three runs apiece in the first, third and sixth innings.

“It was just a great job competing from the first inning to the last inning,” Urbanovich said after his team tallied eight or more runs for the 16th time this season. “We were up three runs, then were down one, and we don’t give in.”

Westwood’s leadoff hitter, sophomore Jack Walsh, was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. He led off the first with an infield single and scored, and he singled to left in the sixth and scored. Senior catcher MD Cabral was 2-for-3 with a walk, and his two-run double to right-center in the sixth scored Walsh.

Ramapo (15-11) scored three runs in the top of the third to take a 4-3 lead. Senior cleanup hitter Aidan Hayward followed his second-inning solo homer to left with a run-scoring single to center in the third, and he was 2-for-4 with one run scored and two batted in. Sophomore Danny Poppe also had two hits for the Raiders, including an RBI single to right-center in the third.

Westwood senior right-hander Andrew Dillingham earned a complete-game win by throwing plenty of strikes. Dillingham may have allowed nine hits, but he didn’t walk a batter and that allowed him to throw just 95 pitches.

“When [Hayward] hit the home run, my first intention was, ‘Get back on the mound and throw another strike,’ When they strike, we just need to be able to get back up,” Dillingham said, adding, “When I get no walks, that’s just a great performance even if they barrel the ball, because now we’re not giving them free runs.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ baseball: Previewing the Bergen County Tournament final