SCT Semifinals take center stage at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater as four teams vie for trip to county championship

After three rounds of play, the Somerset County Tournament semifinals are upon us!

Four teams – Bridgewater-Raritan, defending champion Ridge, Pingry and Rutgers Prep – will be gunning for a chance to play for the county title in nearly two weeks, in semifinal games to be held at TD Bank Ballpark.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will have complete coverage of all the games, starting at 12:35 pm Thursday with pregame for the first semifinal between top-seed Bridgewater-Raritan and 6th-seed Pingry. Coverage will continue with the 4:00 game, featuring 2-seed Ridge and 12th-seed Rutgers Prep.

Central Jersey Sports Radio’s coverage of the Somerset County Tournament is presented by Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater.

Below are full previews of each of Thursday’s semifinal games, with stats, notes, record and analysis.

#2 Ridge (9-2) vs. #6 Pingry (6-3)

First pitch weather: 57 degrees, partly sunny, wind ENE 4 mph (in from left field), 22% rain chance

Starting Pitchers:
Ridge – Brendan Callanan (4-0, 0.23 ERA)
Pingry – Alex Payne (2-1, 0.78 ERA)

How they got here:

Ridge had a bye in the first two rounds, and in its first SCT game – Tuesday’s quarterfinals – got a 76-pitch perfect game from senior Connor Byrne in a 1-0 win over 10-seed Bernards. Clearly, you couldn’t ask for more from Byrne, who had good defense behind him and got just enough offense for the win.

Pingry had a first-round bye, and won their first SCT game in the second round, blowing away 11th-seed and red-hot Manville 13-1, behind a mercy-rule, five-inning no-hitter by Alex Payne. In the quarterfinals Tuesday, they got a stellar outing from Jake Francis on the mound in a 4-1 win over 3rd-seed Montgomery. Coach Anthony Feltre called Kailar Ahn’s home run to break a 1-1 tie – the Big Blue’s first of the season – “the biggest hit of the year.”

Notes:

This is Pingry’s first trip to the the SCT semifinals since 2006, when they lost 8-0 to Immaculata in the county championship game. But they’re no stranger to tournament play, having won the state’s Prep A tournament last spring.

Ridge is the defending champion, and has made the last two finals, three years apart. They made the finals in 2019, losing 6-5 to Immaculata, then after a two-year break due to COVID – with no season in 2020 and a shortened season in 2021 that didn’t allow time to put on a county tournament, the Red Devils won it all last season, beating Rutgers Prep 6-0 in the final.

*Ridge players run onto the field after the final out of the 2022 Somerset County Tournament title game at TD Bank Park on May 23, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

The quarterfinals were all about great pitchers. The losing teams in the quarters were held to three combined runs. Rutgers Prep scored two, Montgomery one, and Immaculata and Bernards got shutout. On this game specifically, Brendan Callanan and Alex Payne have a combined 1.01 ERA, and in one start each in the SCT so far, they have combined to allow zero hits. Even without knowing that number, if you saw either of them pitch, you’d know this could come down to a 1-0 game.

That said, it may be a matter of who gets the timely hit, who is aggressive – or patient – at the plate, and who makes the mistake in the field. Pingry knows from that; they played Ridge to a 1-0 game earlier this year where a dropped fly ball was the difference.

At 6-3, Pingry has won four straight coming in, after a three-game skid where only one game got out of hand, a 10-1 loss to Pennington. Otherwise, there was the one-run loss to Ridge – which was ranked statewide in the preseason and is back this week – and a 2-1 loss to North Hunterdon.

Ridge, meanwhile, has a single loss on the season, that coming via shutout, 3-0 at Bridgewater-Raritan back on April 11th. They haven’t necessarily been tearing the cover off the ball, but they haven’t had to with the pitching they’ve gotten from Callanan – today’s starter – and Byrne.

Preview Audio:

Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell

Pingry head coach Anthony Feltre

Last titles, finals appearances:

Ridge has made the last two finals, winning last season, and falling to Immaculata in 2019. The Red Devils are have made the finals 15 times in their history, winning seven of them. In addition to the 2022 title over Rutgers Prep, they won in 2011, 1989, 1985, 1984, 1980 and 1976.

Pingry has only made two finals, losing both times: in 2006 to Immaculata and in 2003 to Montgomery, 6-1.

Past Coverage:

Ridge:

Pingry:

#1 Bridgewater-Raritan (11-1) vs. #12 Rutgers Prep (5-7), 4 pm

First pitch weather: 61 degrees, partly sunny, wind E 4 mph (in from left field), 6% chance of rain

Starting Pitchers:
Bridgewater-Raritan – Jason Cozzi (1-0, 6.17 ERA)
Rutgers Prep – Zach Fronio (0-1, 1.27 ERA)

How they got here:

Bridgewater-Raritan had a bye in the first two rounds, and in the Panthers’ first SCT game – in Tuesday’s quarterfinals – got a combined one-hitter from three pitchers in a 5-0 win over Immaculata. Starter Matt Fattore felt some soreness and came out after one inning as a precaution. Then, Noah Matheson and Corey Rible threw four and two innings, respectively, of no-hit ball the rest of the way to close out the Spartans and move on to the semifinals.

*Zach Fronio – who’ll get the start tonight – pitches in the 2022 Somerset County Tournament semifinals at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater on May 9, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

Rutgers Prep had to play in the opening round, and picked up an 8-0 shutout win over 13-seed Watchung Hills. They then picked up a big revenge win over 5-seed Franklin, 5-4, in the second round, eleven days after a 15-3 regular season home loss to the Warriors. In Tuesday’s quarterfinals, the Argonauts got by 5-seed Somerville 3-2 on a solid outing from Max Treonze: 9 Ks, 5 hits, no earned runs in a complete game effort.

Notes:

Bridgewater has now cracked the top five statewide, and for good reason. Their pitching has been phenomenal, and they can hit. They’ve got a team ERA of 2.04, and three pitchers with at least 14 innings thrown with ERAs under two: Matthew Fattore (0.41 ERA, 17 innings pitched), Matheson (1.00, 14 IP) and Rible (1.68, 16 2/3 IP). At the plate, three regulars are hitting over .400: Matthew Fattore at .485, James Turchi at .478, and Joey Letko at .429. And as a team, they’ve hit six home runs, three off the batt of Matthew Fattore, while his older brother, Michael, has one, as does Devin Goldberg and Kevin Lee.

Rutgers Prep isn’t really an enigma, but they may be the exception to the rule that you are what your record says you are. They were 2-7 coming into the SCT, but have won three straight in the bracket to get here, with a regular season loss at Montgomery last week sandwiched in there, and that was just by a single run, 11-10. The win over the Pioneers Tuesday atoned for a 12-8 loss in a slugfest back on April 13. There is talent here, but it’s taken Rutgers Prep a little time to figure it all out. They can be dangerous, and surely won’t be overlooked by Max Newill’s club.

As much as the numbers don’t compare to the pitchers in the first game, these are two solid pitchers. Bridgewater senior Jason Cozzi is committed to UMass, while Prep sophomore Zach Fronio already has committed to Maryland. But neither has pitched a lot; combined they have five appearances on the year.

*Bridgewater-Raritan’s Jason Cozzi pitches against Ridge in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals on May 9, 2022 at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, NJ. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

For the Panthers, Cozzi has had some back issues. He went didn’t go long enough to get the win in his first outing at St. Joe’s of Montvale, then came out early of the 4-2 win over Hunterdon Central, throwing just four innings before having to deal with back issues. Newill says he’s kept him out as a precaution, and hopes he’s ready to go for the SCT.

Fronio, meanwhile, has been a bad-luck pitcher. He’s only allowed two runs in 11 innings for a 1.27 ERA, but nine unearned runs have been scored against him. The Argonauts will have to play much better in the field to have a chance against the Panthers.

Preview Audio:

Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Max Newill

Rutgers Prep head coach Larry Santowasso

Last titles, finals appearances:

Rutgers Prep was in last year’s final, falling to Ridge 6-0 in the SCT championship game. They last won the county title back in 2017, and notably, did it as a ten-seed, stunning top-seed Montgomery, 7-2. Those are their only two finals appearances.

Bridgewater-Raritan, meanwhile, made its last trip to the finals in 2012. That was a 4-3, 12-inning loss to Hillsborough. Since the East-West merger, B-R has made four finals, winning it once, in 1996, a 7-5 win over Immaculata. The losses – in addition to 2012 – were back-to-back in 1997 and 1998 to Immaculata, the start of the Spartans’ dynasty, which saw them win six in a row, and ten of 12 SCT championships from 1997 through 2008.