Immaculata senior Danny Ferguson gets in a swing at Watchung Hills on April 23, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
It won’t be the same matchup in the Somerset County Tournament title game as the last two years, but the Ridge baseball team is looking for a fourth straight berth in the finals when the third-seeded Red Devils play second-seed Immaculata Monday in the semifinal round at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater.
Funny their opponent should be Immaculata, since they were the last team to make at least four finals in a row. The Spartans made five straight SCT finals from 2004 to 2008, winning four of them, capping a stretch where they won ten county crowns in a 12-year span from 1997 to 2008.
Monday’s semifinal will be part of a doubleheader you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio – presented by Zoned Sports Academy of Bridgewater – with Ridge-‘Lata followed by top-seed Bridgewater-Raritan taking on fourth-seed Watchung Hills at 4 pm. Mike Pavlichko, Don Savino and Vin Ebeneau will be on the call; click here to listen.
Ridge and Immaculata faced each other in the 2019 Somerset County Tournament final, the last before the COVID shutdown in 2020. Ridge lost that game 6-5 in an epic 12-inning affair. With no tournament in 2021 due to a short season, the Red Devils beat Rutgers Prep 6-0 in 2022’s title game, but lost to the Argonauts last year 1-0.
While a number of key players from last year’s team are gone, Ridge is having another fine season. The Red Devils are 18-7, not the dominant team they were last year at 25-4, but still very solid. And they’re playing some of their best baseball right now, having won six straight.
In the quarterfinals on Thursday, they topped six-seed Hillsborough 12-7 behind three home runs, as Ezra Sadowski, Ben Larner and Jake Dolan all went yard. Sadowski has been a big bopper all year long, hitting .339 with 26 runs batted in, with four home runs. All of those lead the team. Dolan – just a sophomore – is hitting .307 with 10 RBIs and two homers.
On the mound, Ridge is expected to go with Larner, who’s 7-2 with a 1.83 ERA. He’s a strikeout pitcher, fanning 32, while walking just 11. He threw 50 pitches in 3 1/3 innings against Hillsborough, getting the start in that game. That means he’ll have 100 left in the tank – ten shy of the single-game maximum – for Monday’s game.
Click below to hear Vin Ebenau talk with Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell:
On the Immaculata side, the Spartans are 14-6, and got off to a hot start this year, winning nine straight before falling 11-5 at Watchung Hills on April 23rd. That was the first of three straight defeats, with losses to Montgomery and at Phillipsburg following.
But they got back on the winning track, taking three straight against Somerville, Franklin and Rutgers Prep – all on the road, mind you – and have won five of their last eight heading into Monday, including a 3-2 walk-off against Somerville in the quarterfinals.
Kevin Cust’s team is a mix of experience and youth. The experienced players are guys like seniors Troy Rabosky – leading the team in hitting at .434 with 24 RBIs – and Josh Thompson, who’s hitting .414 with 15 runs batted in. Junior’s Jayden Capindica (.328) and Jayson Labrador (.366, 11 RBI) also are third-year varsity players back from a very young team that made the state finals two years ago.
Connor Quinn is the likely starter for the Spartans, 1-0 with a 2.04 ERA. He’s only thrown 4 2/3 innings all year in relief, but some of that was circumstance, with guys like Thompson often going the distance early. But with him and Nick Bozzo on the shelf – after after missing a few weeks with wrist issues – he’s back in form, and Cust feels confident in the sophomore, but has plenty of relief options if he needs it.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Immaculata head coach Kevin Cust:
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