Ridge and Bridgewater-Raritan baseball prevail in SCT semis, will meet for title Friday
RARITAN TOWNSHIP – The pairing for the 50th Somerset County Baseball Tournament final is set. Unlike some recent seasons, the matchup was a likely possibility.
Top seed Bridgewater-Raritan and No. 3 Ridge will play for the county title Friday night at 6 p.m. at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.
Bridgewater-Raritan (22-3) topped No. 4 seed Watchung Hills 4-2 Monday afternoon after Ridge scored a 15-3 five-inning mercy rule win over No. 2 Immaculata.
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Ridge (19-7) scored runs in all five innings, scoring five in the first, three in the second and two in the third to lead 10-0. Ridge has won seven county titles, second to Immaculata’s 14.
The games were moved to Diamond Nation because of water main break at TD Bank Ballpark. The site is expected to be ready for Friday night.
Bridgewater-Raritan will be making its first final since 2012 when as a seventh seed it lost to No. 4 Hillsborough. Ridge returns to the final for the fourth straight tournament, losing as a No. 2 seed to No. 12 Rutgers Prep last season. The Red Devils won as a top seed three years ago by beating sixth seed Prep and lost to Immaculata in 12 innings in the ’19 final.
Ridge has won seven in a row. They are the No. 3 seed in NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 and play host to No. 14 J.P. Stevens on Thursday.
Ridge got off to a 1-4 start but has recovered and continued to pound the ball. They beat Hillsborough 12-7 in the county quarterfinal round.
That trend continued.
“They just kept working knowing that if they did, they would get hot and you know we'd get up close to (batting) .300 as a team by the end of the season,” said Ridge coach Tom Blackwell. “Over the last week or 10 days it's been coming true a little bit. We are starting to swing the bats pretty well.”
Catcher Nick Rossi drove in three runs and leadoff hitter and center fielder Nick Sellitti scored three runs. Eleven different Ridge players scored at least one run. Senior Ben Larner went three innings for the win against Immaculata (14-7).
Bridgewater-Raritan has beaten Ridge twice this season and will need to do it again for a second county crown and first since 1996.
Bridgewater-Raritan prevails
The Panthers used a very successful formula that has resulted in a Skyland Conference Delaware Division title. The Panthers got a fifth inning leadoff home run from Matt Fattore to take a 3-2 lead. That homer was followed by JR Rosado’s hit, a walk to Kellen Komline and Matt Cichocki’s RBI double to make it 4-2.
Then it was up to senior righty reliever Coryi Rible to protect it. He went 3 2/3 with eight strikeouts and no walks in relief of Komline to get the win. Rible has allowed just one walk – intentional – in 27 2/3 innings.
“Corey is a strike throwing machine now, he was going on a little more than a week's rest today we gave him a little bit of a break which was nice,” said B-R coach Max Newill. “I don't think he was as sharp today, but his stuff was good.
“He was falling behind guys a lot today and getting a lot of strikeouts where usually he's strike one strike two, a ground out and we move on, so he had to pitch a little bit different today. He never gave up even when he fell behind in counts, he never gave in. He gave us a chance to get outs.”
Watchung Hills took a 1-0 lead in the second on back-to-back doubles from Landon Pudlak and Jason Wu. B-R tied it in its half on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch. The Panthers went ahead 2-1 in the third on Fattore’s single and Rosado’s double. But Watchung Hills tied it at 2-2 in the fourth on Brody Griffith’s RBI single. That was the inning Watchung Hills could have really changed the game, but Rible kept it 2-2 until Fattore’s homer to left.
Watchung Hills, the 10th seed in North 2, Group 4, plays at No. 7 Hunterdon Central on Thursday. Bridgewater-Raritan, the top seed in the same section, meets No. 16 Union.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Ridge and Bridgewater-Raritan win SCT semifinals
