Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell gets the NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 championship trophy from his players after a 3-2 win over Watchung Hills on June 5, 2026. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
What a whirlwind year for the Ridge Red Devils baseball team.
They began the year 11-1, with an Opening Day win at West Morris bringing the program its 1,000th victory all-time. Then injuries hit, and they lost five straight in late April. After getting knocked out of the Somerset County Tournament in the semifinals by eventual champion Watchung Hills, they regrouped and rebounded to beat the Warriors in the NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 championship game.
They would fall in the state semifinals, 8-7, on a walk-off home run in extra innings at Ridgewood, but earn the final No. 1 ranking in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten.
After which, head coach Tom Blackwell told his team last week, after 21 years and 20 seasons as the Red Devils’ skipper, he would be retiring. Blackwell went 328-211 from 2006 through 2026 (there was no high school baseball in the COVID year) with his teams winning two Somerset County Titles (2011 and 2022) and two North 2, Group 4 titles in the state tournament (2021 and 2026).
It was the perfect way to end a coaching career, but so much more than that for Blackwell, a Ridge alum who played for the legendary Pete Hall, the namesake of the Red Devils’ baseball field.
In a rollercoaster of a season, Ridge is the 2026 Central Jersey Sports Radio Team of the Year.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Ridge seniors Kieran Callanan and Toby Nicholson, as well as retiring head coach Tom Blackwell:
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