Baseball: Ridge and Immaculata win in the SCT, advances to Monday's semifinal
RARITAN TOWNSHIP – Two staples of Somerset County baseball found their way back to TD Bank Ballpark and county tournament semifinals in contrasting ways Thursday afternoon.
No. 2 seed Immaculata, a 14-time county champ, scored a 3-2 win over No. 7 Somerville at Diamond Nation via a walk-off RBI double in one quarterfinal.
Third seed and seven-time champ Ridge batted around in an eight-run first inning and beat No. 6 Hillsborough 12-7 at Diamond Nation in another quarter.
So, Monday afternoon Immaculata will face Ridge in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. That will be followed by No. 4 Watchung Hills and No. 1 Bridgewater-Raritan at 4 p.m. Both games are at TD Bank Ballpark.
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Immaculata scored all of its runs in the final two innings.
Colin Kassai led off the seventh with a single, stole second and scored the game-winning run on Connor Quinn’s double.
The Spartans (14-5) received a strong outing from starter Nick Bozzo and Sean Henry picked up the win by getting an out in the seventh.
Somerville junior Ryan Ciesla pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run, four hits and a walk. He struck out seven for the Pioneers (9-14).
Ridge prevails
Ridge (17-7) got first inning home runs from Ezra Sadowski – a three-run shot to open the scoring — and starting pitcher Ben Larner hit a two-run homer for a 5-0 lead. Sadowski added an RBI-single later in the inning to make it 8-0.
Both teams used five pitchers apiece. Ridge had Larner, Brady Wilson, Matt Faltas, Andrew Reynolds and Sadowsky.
“Luckily for us, we have plenty of pitchers we trust,” said Ridge Tom Blackwell.
Hillsborough’s Alex Reiling homered to right in the sixth inning with Peter Cipparulo aboard. Cipparulo was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Jake Battagliese drove in two runs and tripled.
JJ Lotierzo provided two RBIs after doubling in the fourth and walking in the fifth for the Raiders (9-13).
Ridge sophomore Jake Dolan hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth that gave the Red Devils an 11-5 lead. He reached base four times, including three walks.
“It’s the most runs we’ve given up this season,” Boro coach Matt Mosko said. “That sums it up right there and we walked eight and hit two. You can't win games with that kind of outing on the mound. We didn’t come through in clutch situations at the plate either.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Ridge and Immaculata win in Somerset County Tournament
