May 18th was his last Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, but this one was his last one, period.
Bill Kilduff – after nearly 50 years calling high school baseball in New Jersey – has officially called it a year.
His final game spanned two days, the Non-Public Group A final, which started Thursday at Bob DeMeo Field in Hamilton’s Veterans’ Park, and continued Friday after a deluge of rain in the fourth inning left the field unplayable, forcing St. Augustine and Delbarton to finish about 22 hours later.
The game was a 12-5 win for St. Augustine, unranked in the state top 20, over the state’s top team as of last week, Delbarton. The Hermits scored eleven runs in the third inning Thursday, including a grand slam, and a few more runs that came on pitches that went to the backstop.
But even Kilduff’s final inning was interesting: he called a balk with a runner on third against the St. Augustine pitcher in the bottom of the seventh that allowed a Delbarton run to score.
We got a chance to catch up with Kilduff after the game, and even got video of the final out with him on the field, working behind the plate. You can see and hear both below:
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with retiring umpire Bill Killduff, as he came off the field following his final game, the Non-Public Group A final: