Bridgewater-Raritan entertains Immaculata in a Somerset County Tournament quarterfinal game on April 25, 2023. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Coming off a season in which the Bridgewater-Raritan baseball team won reached the 20-win mark for the first time since 2015, it’s not just hopes that are high off Garretson Road.
Expectations are high.
Last year’s 23-7 club – which set a school record for wins – reached the North 2, Group 4 finals, falling short in the title game to Bayonne. In the Somerset County Tournament they were knocked off in the semifinals by pseudo-Cinderella Rutgers Prep, which turned out to be a much better team than its record at the time of seeding would project.
As head coach Max Newill puts it, “Last year’s team gave this year’s team a target to shoot at.”
They’ll start the season No. 2 in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten rankings.
Newill’s ’24 club has a lot of experience, and specifically varsity experience. There’s Devin Goldberg, Matt Fattore and JR Rosado, as well as Frankie Verano, out part of last year due to injury.
Goldberg hit .400 last year with 27 runs batted in and a home run. Fattore hit .395, and will also pitch, healthy again after having tendinitis issues last year. And Verano hit close to .500 on the season.
Besides Fattore, Newill will look to Owen Crimmins and Kellen Komline, who were starting pitchers as a sophomore and freshman, respectively.
Click below to hear Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Max Newill talk about the Panthers’ 2024 season:
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