How’s that for an opener? No. 4 Immaculata edges No. 1 Bridgewater-Raritan 2-1 in 13-inning walk-off Opening Day marathon

And they have to meet again Thursday!

In a marathon, 13-inning game Opening Day game at Diamond Nation in Flemington, freshman Luca Catanzarite – who almost won the game with a single in the eleventh – hit one to centerfield gave No. 4 Immaculata a 2-1 win over No. 1 Bridgewater-Raritan, ending one of the wildest season openers anyone’s seen in a while.

The game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio featured just 15 hits between the two teams, but a combined six errors – five for Immaculata – and 35 runners left on base. Of those, 21 were stranded by the Panthers, who left the bases loaded three times: once in the third, and twice in extra innings, in the 11th and 13th.

The Spartans’ game-winner came when Catanzarite – on an 0-2 pitch with two out – hit a soft liner to center that Kellan Komline charged in on and dove for. But he couldn’t come up with it, scoring Nehemiah Diaz from third.

After a Dan Brea groundout, Diaz worked out a six-pitch walk, then stole second with Connor Quinn at the plate, who eventually struck out looking. Diaz made it to third on a wild pitch that was ball four to Jackson Lewis, then scored on Catanzarite’s hit.

Connor Price took the loss in relief for Bridgewater-Raritan, while Michael Drelich got the win for Immaculata.

The Spartans took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sac fly to right by catcher Owen Schilling. The Panthers answered back in the third when Komline hit a ground ball to third, and reached on a fielder’s choice. But a throwing error on the play allowed Price – who started the game at DH, then entered at third, and eventually pitched the 13th – to score from second.

In between there were all manner of threats for both teams. But each time, the pitchers were able to get out of it. Sometimes with a dramatic strikeout, sometimes with a defensive gem, like Lehberger’s throw from left field to end the 11th inning, gunning down Dan Brea at the plate, on a single by Catanzarite that could have won it.

No one scored for ten innings. The lights came on. Ridge and North Hunterdon had started on another field at the same time, and the Red Devils came to watch the Panthers afterward. Then it got cold. They left around then 12th inning. The Hunterdon Central softball team stuck around to watch after their game, too.

The Spartans finally won it, four hours and eleven minutes after the first pitch had been thrown by Wake Forest commit and Del Val transfer Ryan Auten, who went three innings on a standard early season pitch count, striking out eight, walking three, allowing one hit and one unearned run.

Komline also looked good for his part, striking out five, while walking three and giving up just one run in four innings of work. And Jack Lanum, who was excellent on the mound last year during a 30-win campaign that saw the Panthers win every title possible – the Delaware Division, the SCT, North 2 Group 4 and the state Group 4 championship – threw five scoreless innings in relief.

Click below for postgame reaction from Immaculata’s hero, Luca Catanzarite, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen