'We finally broke through': Bridgewater-Raritan baseball wins first SCT since 1996
BRIDGEWATER – The 50th Somerset County Baseball Tournament final Friday night was on the fringe of becoming a taut event when Bridgewater-Raritan restored command.
Third-seeded Ridge’s four-run fifth inning had cut the top-seeded Panthers’ lead to 8-6. But B-R answered quickly in its half with two runs on the way to a 10-7 win at TD Bank Ballpark. The county title was B-R’s first since 1996.
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“We have been here 10 times out of the last 15 tournaments (semifinals/final) at the stadium, you have to keep knocking at the door and eventually they’ll let you in or if they don’t let you in you have to break through it and we finally broke through it tonight,” said B-R coach Max Newill, whose team’s last trip to the final was in 2012.
The Skyland Conference Delaware champs, 25-3, won their ninth-straight game, beating the Red Devils (20-8) for the third time this season.
B-R starter Owen Crimmins went 4 1/3 and raised his record to 8-0. He was relieved by Joey Letko, who gave way to Cory Rible.
Rible had the honor of getting the final out of a game where the teams combined to walk 15 batters. Rible has only walked one – an intentional walk – in 30 1/3 innings.
“Ever since you’re little, you imagine yourself pitching late in a close game with everything on the line, “Rible said. “This game was pretty close to that for me and I’m in awe of this team reaching this point.”
Bridgewater-Raritan’s fifth started with Matt Lehberger’s single followed by a booming Matt Fattore RBI triple to center. DH Matt Cichocki’s sac fly to left drove in Fattore for a 10-6 lead.
“We are a very good all-around team, we are a bunch of grinders, we love the pressure of the moment. We knew we would come out on top,” said first baseman Fattore.
“It’s always good to answer back,” said Newill.
The grinders at the bottom of the order had quite the game as third baseman and No. 8 batter Joe Spirra and No. 9 Mike Taylor were a combined 6-for-8 with two runs scored and a Spirra RBI. Taylor was 4-for-4.
”It wasn’t the prettiest of baseball games, but we competed for all seven innings and that’s all you can ask out of a team,” said Newill, “I told our offense at batting practice today that our pitchers have been carrying us for a few weeks here. We need to step up and win a game with our offense and they responded.”
Ridge took a 2-1 lead in the third inning, but the Panthers answered with five in the bottom of the inning.
Both teams made three errors.
“We didn’t do enough things to win a base game like this - like throwing strikes and playing defense and we happened to do them all at once,” said Ridge coach Tom Blackwell. “Once you walk a couple of guys and then make an error or two … you certainly can't do that and expect to win games like this.”
Ridge could get yet another chance with B-R in the North 2, Group 4 tournament. B-R is the top seed. Both teams won their opening round games. Third-seed Ridge plays host to defending section champ Bayonne and B-R plays host to Edison. Both games are Wednesday and the teams would meet again in a section final on June 3.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Bridgewater-Raritan top RIdge to win first SCT since 1996
