Tag: Cory Rible

June 13, 2024June 13, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Bridgewater-Raritan’s Cory Rible locked it down in 2024; he’s the CJSR Player of the Year

It is the rare student-athlete who will sacrifice personal gain for the team. But those are the kind you want.

Enter Cory Rible, whose idea it was to move into a complete reliever role, as opposed to a hybrid starter who can come in out of the bullpen.

How would that look to colleges? He may be uncommitted, but he didn’t care.

Rible took the mound 17 times this season for Bridgewater-Raritan, and each and every time, the Panthers won. Won the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, the Somerset County Tournament, the North 2, Group 4 title, and the state Group 4 championship.

In all of those playoff wins – and for many in the Skyland’s top division – Rible was the man on the mound at the end. And each time, he came through.

He was as automatic as a teenager can be at anything. Locked in. Eyes focused. Always winning.

For that, Rible is our Central Jersey Sports Radio 2024 Player of the Year.

Click below to hear our interview with Rible and Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Max Newill. And scroll down to see our five Honorable Mention candidates:

Honorable Mentions:

Carter Cumiskey, Spotswood: Deservedly so, Cumiskey gets a lot of attention for his pitching. The Seton Hall commit has a career 2.01 ERA in almost 100 innings pitched at the varsity level for three years, and he’ll be back for head coach Glenny Fredricks in 2025. Though he took a couple of late losses, he had four starts without allowing a single run, and finished with a 1.80 ERA in 2024. As a first baseman, he’s always in the lineup, and he feasted at the plate, too, hitting a whopping .446 with 30 runs batted in. Cumiskey hit six doubles, a triple, and six home runs this season, and is one of the more feared players in the GMC at the plate and on the mound.
JT Meyer, Old Bridge: The Knights had a trio of solid starters in Frank Papeo, Justin Hascup and JT Meyer. Of his nine appearances, Old Bridge won seven, and in the two losses, he didn’t allow any earned runs. In fact, he only allowed five all year, three coming in a win over North Brunswick, and two coming in a victory over St. Joseph-Metuchen. Meyer finished the year with 28 strikeouts to only nine walks, and an outstanding 0.81 earned run average. In his third and final varsity season, he also hit .295 with 14 RBIs, both career bests.
Jaxon Appelman, Edison: The Coastal Carolina-bound Appelman was mostly a very dominant pitcher again in 2024, and he even took a no-hitter into the seventh against Middlesex, going 6 and 2/3 without allowing a knock until a comebacker up the middle broke it up with two out. With great velocity and movement, Appelman keeps hitters off the game. He logged 92 strikeouts this year, the most of his career, and finished with a 1.68 ERA, making it three of his four varsity seasons – last year the exception – with an year-end ERA under two. Speaking of which, he can hit, too. Jaxon had five doubles, five triples, and hit six home runs this year.
Julius Rosado, South River: A staple for the Rams on the mound, he’s one of the top-hitting pitchers in the GMC. He finished second in the state with 14 home runs, tied with Ryan Costello of Ranney, and four shy of the 18 hit by Morris Knolls’ Luke Dickerson, which tied the New Jersey single-season record held by Ramsey’s Ashton Bardzell and Millville’s Mike Trout, currently with Los Angeles Angels. Rosado doubled last year’s total, and now has 25 for his career. Oh, and he’ll be back for his senior year next season, before heading to Piscataway to play for Rutgers with former GMC standouts Donovan Szak and Zack Konstantinovsky.
Zack Robinson, South Plainfield: Robinson’s play in the field and at the plate was a big reason for the Tigers’ GMC Red Division championship, and their run to both the GMC Tournament and North 2, Group 3 sectional finals. He finished seven shy of the state lead for hits this year with 43, adding in nine doubles, four triples and three home runs. And he was stellar in the field, producing several gems that would save runs or get his team out of a tricky spot. The senior will play at Gardner-Webb next spring.
Zack Wallace, Monroe: Throwing well over 60 innings, one of the tops in the GMC, Wallace only allowed earned runs in four of 13 games, and he even threw seven scoreless innings in a 10-inning, 1-0 loss to Old Bridge. The senior fanned over 100 batters and only walked 28, allowing just eleven earned runs all year, finishing with a 1.19 ERA.
Devin Goldberg, Bridgewater-Raritan: A teammate of Rible, the uncommitted senior co-captain was among the top ten in the state this year with 37 stolen bases, including two in the Group 4 title game win over Eastern. On a team that counts on everyone to contribute, isn’t a heavy slugging team, and does the small-ball basics well, Goldberg’s contributions can’t be overlooked.

June 8, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Panthers are champs! Bridgewater-Raritan takes first ever state title with 6-4 win over Eastern

Bridgewater-Raritan is 4-for-4.

The Panthers – Skyland Conference Delaware Champs, Somerset County Tournament Champs, and North 2, Group 4 sectional champs – now are state champions, for the first time ever.

The Panthers built a 5-0 lead and saw it get cut to a one-run advantage after giving up a third-inning grand slam before Cory Rible closed the door – as he’s done all season long – en route to a 6-4 win over Eastern in the NJSIAA Group 4 final, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, at Bob DeMeo Field at Hamilton’s Veterans’ Park.

And the record books have been rewritten.

Bridgewater scored once in the first, and four times in the second, and as it turns out that was all they would need.

But Eastern made it interesting, with Sam Winsett belting a third-inning grand slam to make it 5-4 BR.

Owen Crimmins started the game and came out in the fourth, as Jack Lanum retired both batters he faced, then Rible came in. All he did was throw three perfect innings, retiring all nine batters he faced.

The win gives Bridgewater-Raritan a 30-3 record, shattering a school mark it set last year by seven, and their first state title since the merger of the East and West high schools in 1992. East made the finals one, in 1971, and West won a state title in 1989.

Matt Lehberger scored the game’s first run. He hit a one-out double in the bottom of the first, and when he tried to steal third, the throw from catcher Anthony Cataldo sailed wide and into left, allowing Lehberger to come home.

Bridgewater built on that lead in the second. JR Rosado led off with a single, and came out for courtesy runner Nick Turchi. Kellan Komline singled, but an errant throw trying to get Turchi out at third went out of play, allowing Turchi to score and putting Komline at third. After Frankie Verano popped out, Joe Spirra walked, and Michael Taylre knocked in Komline with a single to make it 3-0. Devin Goldberg popped out foul, Matt Lehberger reached on an error, and then Matt Fattore drove in two with a single before Matt Cichocki flew out to left to end the inning.

It looked like Crimmins would get a chance to be comfortable, but the third inning changed all that. Matt Gryskiewicz led with a single, and after a K, Logan Dawson – the Eastern starter, batting in the leadoff spot – walked. Ryder Haldeman laid a bunt down the third base line that rolled slowly toward the foul line, but died before it hit the chalk, loading the bases. Winsett then pummeled a 2-2 pitch off a light pole 365 feet away in left for a grand slam to cut it to 5-4.

And it stayed that way for a bit, until the first pitch of the fifth. That’s when Bridgewater’s Fattore crushed one to left for a solo shot to give Bridgewater a 6-4 lead. It was the 100th hit of his high school career.

By that point, stopper/closer Cory Rible was in the game, and the insurance run proved to be just that.

He’d already thrown a 1-2-3 fifth, sandwiching two strikeouts around a groundout. After the Fattore home run, he struck out the side in the sixth, throwing some real gas, then got a strikeout, groundout and another K to end the game, setting off a wild celebration.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

June 3, 2024 by Alec Crouthamel

Second time’s the charm! Bridgewater-Raritan wins North 2, Group 4 title, blanking Hunterdon Central 2-0 with dominant pitching

Despite coming into the game with a 14-year sectional championship drought – including a loss last year in this game at home to Bayonne – the top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan Panthers brought expectations of a victory into the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 title game against seventh-seeded Hunterdon Central.

It’s safe to say those expectations were met, as the Panthers beat the Red Devils at home Monday, 2-0, for their first sectional crown since 2010, and second under head coach Max Newill.

Bridgewater-Raritan struck first in the second inning, as Joe Spirra hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score JR Rosado. It remained a 1-0 battle until the bottom of the sixth, when Matt Cichocki reached base on an infield single and proceeded to steal second, advance to third on a groundout before scoring a crucial insurance run on a wild pitch. Those two runs proved to be the difference in a fast-moving pitcher’s duel

The Panthers were dominant on the mound, keeping the Red Devils off the scoreboard. Starter Jack Lanum battled through a shaky first inning to settle in and shut down Central. He finished with 4 shutout innings, allowing only one hit and striking out two. Michael Taylor came in for the fifth inning and retired his first three batters.

After he allowed a leadoff single in the sixth, head coach Max Newill made a big move and brought in closer Cory Rible, who Newill has kept faith in all year long as their premiere bullpen arm. Newill’s trust paid off and then some, as Rible retired all six batters he faced and stranded the potential tying run in the sixth. In the seventh, he struck out the side in dominant fashion – coming one ball shy of an immaculate inning – to close out the Panthers’ first sectional championship victory since 2010.

Rible has appeared in 16 games this year, all out of the bullpen, and Bridgewater has won all 16 of those contests.

The Red Devils had a very solid game on the mound in their own right. Starter Ryan Lundari also had to work through a long first inning, but he settled in nicely to finish with five innings pitched and six strikeouts while only allowing four hits.

The Panthers (28-3) will move on to play in a Group 4 semifinal at home Wednesday, hosting Livingston (22-7-1). The Lancers – the third-seed in North 1, Group 4 – won that title Monday with a walkoff, 4-3, victory over fourth-seed Montclair.