Ethan Nepomuceno – shown here batting against Passaic Tech on April 6, 2024 – takes a team-best nine RBIs into Saturday’s meeting with No. 1 Ridge. (Source: @ethan_nep24 on Twitter)
The Ridge baseball team is No. 1 in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten this week. Rutgers Prep is unranked, but after two wins this week to up their record to 6-3, they very well could be next week.
A win Saturday afternoon would go a long way to putting them back in the rankings.
Ridge will have a lot to say about that, however.
The two will meet Saturday afternoon at 2:30 in Basking Ridge in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with a lot on the line. Most importantly, it’s a big crossover that could heavily influence the county seeding meeting, which happens Monday, May 5th.
Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen will bring you all the action, with pregame starting at 2:15. Click here to listen.
Ridge is 5-2 on the young season, and split this week with Bridgewater-Raritan, the defending Somerset County Tournament and state Group 4 champs, who have struggled early. The Red Devils beat them 12-0 Tuesday, then fell 9-5 at home Thursday.
Jake Dolan has been a beat at the plate. The junior is hitting .640 and leads the team with nine runs batted in, with one home run. Aidan Steiglitz has the other. He’s been outstanding on the mound, allowing one hit through 6 2/3 innings in Tuesday’s win over the Panthers, striking out 14.
Senior Connor McLauughlin will get the nod Saturday. He’s 2-0, with his only start coming against Montgomery, an 11-2 win back on April 5th. He struck out five and walked four, but allowed no hits in four shutout innings. He also threw a third of an inning against Bridgewater Tuesday, after Stieglitz hit his 110-pitch limit.
Ridge, by the way, will be “playing two” Saturday, as the Red Devils play an 11 am game against Pingry in nearby Martinsville before facing the Argonauts at 2:30.
Rutgers Prep also can hit the ball, and score runs, too. In their six wins, they’ve scored 11 or more runs five times. The scary part? Only one regular hits over .400, senior Cody Rullo, who’s 14-for-28 in the first nine games, with nine runs batted in. Only one regular is hitting under .300, and that’s junior Matt Bilmes, hitting a very respectable .290, meaning the Argonauts are balanced.
And then there’s the pitching. Li Perez will make his fourth start of the season. He’s 2-1, and has struck out at least ten batters in all three starts.
In the season opener at Manville on March 29th, he threw a five-inning no-hitter Prep won 10-0, striking out ten. At Bernards on April 3rd, he struck out 13 and allowed just one hit and one unearned run, taking the loss. In his last outing against Del Val on the tenth, he went the full seven, allowed one hit, no runs, and fanned 17.
Simple math says: 17 innings, two hits, one unearned run and 40 strikeouts.
Click below to hear pregame interviews with both head coaches ahead of Saturday’s game:
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