Very familiar foes, Ridge and Bridgewater-Raritan, to square off in North 2, Group 4 semis

Surely it’s happened somewhere else around New Jersey, or maybe not, but few teams have probably seen more of each other on a baseball diamond the last five years than Ridge and Bridgewater-Raritan.

Being in the same division, they play twice a year already, but then they’ll also could meet in the Somerset County Tournament, or the NJSIAA state tournament. That happened in 2022.

In fact, since the COVID interruption to high school baseball in 2020, the Red Devils and Panthers have met 14 times. Besides the usual Skyland Conference Delaware Division home-and-home, they met three times in 2021 (including a sectional quarterfinal), three times last season (the third in the SCT final) and four times in 2022 – two regular season games, an SCT semifinal, and a North 2, Group 4 quarterfinal – with all four won by Ridge.

Overall in that span? It’s seven wins apiece. Even Steven.

And that’s just about what it’s been like this year. Ridge won their April 15th game 12-0, but Bridgewater won the rematch, 9-5.

The third game will be Thursday afternoon – now moved to the turf at Diamond Nation in Flemington after yesterday’s rains in Basking Ridg – as the top-seeded Red Devils (18-5) will take on the ninth-seeded and defending state Group 4 champion Panthers (7-17) at 4 pm in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 quarterfinals. You can her that game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko on the call. Pregame is set for 3:45; click here to listen.

Ridge has had a fine year, with two of its five losses coming to Immaculata, and one more each to the Panthers, Hunterdon Central – also a No. 1 seed in the states, in Central Group 4 – and Seton Hall Prep, a 1-0 rain-shortened five-inning loss where it would have been fun to see what the Red Devils could do with their final six outs, if given the chance.

Bridgewater-Raritan has struggled, coming in ten games below .500, but with a slew of injuries that compounded graduation losses. All were critical parts of last year’s squad. Owen Crimmins (shoulder) and Nick Spirra (wrist) essentially are out, with Spirra at best unable to play offense. JR Rosado has been banged up all year, while Matt Cichocki (ACL) and Matthew Lehberger (left hand) are hurt, but playing.

And yet, the Panthers have been very much in games, and could be a scary nine-seed in this bracket. Ten of their 17 losses have come by two runs or fewer, six by a single run. Only four times have they lost by four or more runs.

Ace Aidan Stieglitz (7-3, 0.98 ERA) will get the start for Ridge; he went 6 2/3 and allowed just one hit, striking out 14 in their win over the Panthers. Bridgewater will throw Jack Lanum (2-3, 2.88 ERA). He threw six innings in their win over the Red Devils and got the win.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko preview the game with both head coaches: