Panthers make the finals! Bridgewater-Raritan tops Livingston 8-1 in Group 4 semis behind Komline’s pitching, Fattore’s dinger

Bridgewater-Raritan East made a Group 3 final in 1971, and Bridgewater-Raritan West won a Group 2 title in 1989.

But for the first time since the 1992 merger of those two schools, the Panthers are headed to the state finals.

They are there because of solid pitching by Kellen Komline, who wasn’t overpowering, but stranded seven runners on base in the first four innings and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth, while his team built up a 7-0 lead over the first three.

They are there because of a lot of things, but also Matt Fattore’s two-run homer in the first that was part of a four-run inning that left Komline comfortable enough to pitch out of jams.

The end result was an 8-1 win over visiting Livingston to clinch a trip to the Group 4 finals.

Bridgewater-Raritan (29-3) will travel down to Bob DeMeo Field at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton Saturday night for the state Group 4 final at 7 pm against Eastern. The Vikings (25-6) beat Jackson Memorial 7-5 Wednesday in their Group 4 semifinal.

Fattore’s home run started things off in the first after Devin Goldberg flew out but Matthew Lehberger reached on a single. Komline hit a grounder to second that made it 3-0, and Frankie Verano drove in the fourth run with a double.

The Panthers got three more in the third on an RBI single by Verano and a two-RBI single by Joe Spirra.

Livingston got its only run in the fourth, on a pair of doubles. Alex Yang reached with one out, then Julian Schultz knocked him in.

But Bridgewater got it right back in the bottom of the inning. Goldberg reached on an infield hit, stole second on catchers’ indifference, then came home after he tried to steal third but the throw from catcher John Marco Maiello deflected off the third baseman’s glove to the vacant shortstop position.

Komline got the win to improve to 3-0. Mike Lentini pitched the last two innings to close it out. The loss went to Livingston’s Tyler Chen, who fell to 3-1.

Bridgewater improves to 29-3, while head coach Max Newill picked up a milestone win. He’s now 250-186 in his 17 seasons with the Panthers.

The winner will play Saturday at 7 pm at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton in the state Group 4 final, against the winner of Wednesday’s other Group 4 semi between Central champion Jackson Memorial (18-10) and South champion Eastern (24-6), which was eliminated last year in the semis by Old Bridge.