Eastern is the South Jersey Group 4 champion, and will play Bridgewater-Raritan Saturday night in Hamilton for the state Group 4 title. (Source: @easternviking on Twitter)
Every team has a few bumps in the road on the way to a championship. For Bridgewater-Raritan it has been a fairly smooth ride. They’ve lost three games, sure, but for the most part, they have taken care of business all year.
They haven’t had multiple injuries, or any long losing streaks.
Eastern, on the other hand, has had more than it’s share, maybe even more than a league’s share.
Junior Jack Bauer was going to be the Vikings’ DH this year, but he’s been out all season after being injured in an auto accident.
Left fielder Matt Capriotti dislocated his shoulder May 4th in a 3-2 loss to Rancocas Valley. He dove for a ball with two out and a runner on second, caught it, injured his shoulder, his glove fell off, and it was ruled “no catch,” allowing two runs to score, including the winning run.
One of their best baserunners, Brendan Galante, sprained his ankle this week in the sectional quarterfinals against Cherokee, and is out. And current DH Sean Karbach recently had an aunt killed in a car accident.
That’s not to mention a “personal tragedy” one of his assistants had to go through, and his very own father-in-law passing away earlier in the year.
And yet, here are the Eastern Vikings: 25-6 despite it all, South Jersey Group 4 champions.
And Saturday night at 7, they’ll be playing for their first-ever Group 4 state title when they take on Bridgewater-Raritan at Bob DeMeo Field at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton. Pregame starts at 6:40 pm, and you can hear Mike Pavlichko call all the action on Central Jersey Sports Radio by clicking here.
The Panthers come in with a record of 29-3, after beating Livingston 8-1 Wednesday for Bridgewater-Raritan’s first sectional title since 2010, their second under head coach Max Newill, for which the victory also was his 250th as a head coach.
Click below to hear Eastern head coach Rob Christ talk about the Vikings’ season, and Saturday’s matchup with Bridgewater-Raritan for the Group 4 title:
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