Anthony Feltre – Central Jersey Sports Radio

After rolling with an underclassman-heavy squad last year, there’s no shortage of familiar faces in the Pingry dugout this season.

The Big Blue have brought back almost their entire roster, graduating only four seniors from the 2025 season. Pingry’s offense returns several hitters who played key roles at a young age, as three of the top four RBI leaders – Aaron Wu, Sam de Laurier and Riley Wong – were freshmen or sophomores last season.

The Big Blue split the first four games of the season at 2-2, most recently going 1-1 against Warren Hills. The trio of Wu, de Laurier and Varneckas has picked up right where it left off: they have ten of Pingry’s 18 RBIs so far this season.

They’ll take all that offense to TD Bank Park in Bridgewater Saturday afternoon, as the Big Blue battle Montgomery (2-4) in a Valley-Raritan Division crossover in Skyland Conference play. You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio at 2 pm, with pregame set for 1:40. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas are on the call; click here to listen.

On the pitching side, And four different pitchers have taken the mound already for Pingry, three with good starts, as senior Michael Cardona leads the way with a 1.27 ERA in 11 innings thrown. Langston McDonald (2.47 ERA) and Shane Varneckas (3.32 ERA) have also seen a heavy workload early this season.

They’ll face a Montgomery lineup that, thus far, has struggled a bit at the plate, but probably won’t for long. Sophomore Michael Englert, who went 3-for-5 with a triple and five RBI in the season-opener against Warren Hills – a 13-1 victory – could be back in the lineup Saturday after tweaking his knee in that game.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas talk with Pingry head coach Anthony Feltre:

Solid pitching, good hitting. Two teams very similar in nature who are a combined 20-1 will square off in Basking Ridge Friday afternoon, as No. 1 Ridge entertains No. 10 Pingry in a Skyland Conference crossover game.

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Pingry is 9-0 and has given up just four earned runs all year. Half of them came in Thursday’s 6-5 win over Delaware Valley, an error-prone game uncharacteristic of the Big Blue.

In fact, after allowing a single run to Bound Brook in a 14-1 Opening Day road win, Pingry pitching went the next 40 innings without giving up a run.

The next time a runner crossed the plate on them after Opening Day was this past Wednesday, in a 25-1 road win at Belvidere.

Ridge on the other hand is 11-1, and has won ten straight since a 7-6 loss to a very good Hunterdon Central team back on April fourth. They’ve done it with solid pitching as well, and great balance at the plate, with four starters hitting over .350.

They’ve won games by the ten-run rule, but also have won tight ones, like a 2-1 victory against West Morris, a 3-1 decision over North Hunterdon, and – in their most recent game, Thursday – a 5-2 victory over Hillsborough.

You can her Friday afternoon’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with live coverage beginning at 3:45, and first pitch set for 4 pm. Mike Pavlichko will call all the play-by-play. Click here to listen live, and for free.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with both head coaches about their seasons, and Friday’s matchup: