Bridgewater-Raritan with its Group 4 championship trophy after beating Eastern for its first ever state title, 6-4, at Bob DeMeo Field in Hamilton on June 8, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Bridgewater-Raritan is 4-for-4.
The Panthers – Skyland Conference Delaware Champs, Somerset County Tournament Champs, and North 2, Group 4 sectional champs – now are state champions, for the first time ever.
The Panthers built a 5-0 lead and saw it get cut to a one-run advantage after giving up a third-inning grand slam before Cory Rible closed the door – as he’s done all season long – en route to a 6-4 win over Eastern in the NJSIAA Group 4 final, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, at Bob DeMeo Field at Hamilton’s Veterans’ Park.
And the record books have been rewritten.
Bridgewater scored once in the first, and four times in the second, and as it turns out that was all they would need.
But Eastern made it interesting, with Sam Winsett belting a third-inning grand slam to make it 5-4 BR.
Owen Crimmins started the game and came out in the fourth, as Jack Lanum retired both batters he faced, then Rible came in. All he did was throw three perfect innings, retiring all nine batters he faced.
The win gives Bridgewater-Raritan a 30-3 record, shattering a school mark it set last year by seven, and their first state title since the merger of the East and West high schools in 1992. East made the finals one, in 1971, and West won a state title in 1989.
Matt Lehberger scored the game’s first run. He hit a one-out double in the bottom of the first, and when he tried to steal third, the throw from catcher Anthony Cataldo sailed wide and into left, allowing Lehberger to come home.
Bridgewater built on that lead in the second. JR Rosado led off with a single, and came out for courtesy runner Nick Turchi. Kellan Komline singled, but an errant throw trying to get Turchi out at third went out of play, allowing Turchi to score and putting Komline at third. After Frankie Verano popped out, Joe Spirra walked, and Michael Taylre knocked in Komline with a single to make it 3-0. Devin Goldberg popped out foul, Matt Lehberger reached on an error, and then Matt Fattore drove in two with a single before Matt Cichocki flew out to left to end the inning.
It looked like Crimmins would get a chance to be comfortable, but the third inning changed all that. Matt Gryskiewicz led with a single, and after a K, Logan Dawson – the Eastern starter, batting in the leadoff spot – walked. Ryder Haldeman laid a bunt down the third base line that rolled slowly toward the foul line, but died before it hit the chalk, loading the bases. Winsett then pummeled a 2-2 pitch off a light pole 365 feet away in left for a grand slam to cut it to 5-4.
And it stayed that way for a bit, until the first pitch of the fifth. That’s when Bridgewater’s Fattore crushed one to left for a solo shot to give Bridgewater a 6-4 lead. It was the 100th hit of his high school career.
By that point, stopper/closer Cory Rible was in the game, and the insurance run proved to be just that.
He’d already thrown a 1-2-3 fifth, sandwiching two strikeouts around a groundout. After the Fattore home run, he struck out the side in the sixth, throwing some real gas, then got a strikeout, groundout and another K to end the game, setting off a wild celebration.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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