Jackson Trego – Central Jersey Sports Radio

For the first 40 minutes or so of Wednesday night’s Somerset County Tournament final, the story was Ridge starting pitcher Aidan Steiglitz, who was mowing down Immaculata’s hitters. Through three innings, he had struck out eight, nine straight, five in a row looking.

The game turned in the top of the fourth though, where top-seed Ridge made two errors, and second-seed Immaculata capitalized, scoring three runs. It was all they would need in a 3-0 win over the Red Devils that gave them their record 15th county championship overall, and first since winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019, the second of which came over Ridge.

In the decisive fourth, Luca Catanzarite led off and hit a fly ball to right that was misplayed by Toby Nicholson for an error, leaving Catanzarite on second. But he got picked off with the next batter at the plate.

That was Jayden Capindica, who scored – after a strikeout by Jayson Labrador – when Owen Schilling hit a ground ball to deep short. Kieran Callanan made a good throw to first, but first baseman Sawyer Paul missed it, and Capindica came around to score to make it 1-0.

Justin Labrador then singled, and with two on, Colin Kassai delivered what would be a big blow, a two-RBI double to right field that scored two more unearned runs, and gave the Spartans a 3-0 lead.

From that point, ‘Lata starter Jackson Trego got more confidence. He got Ridge out 1-2-3 in the fourth. And he wound up going six shutout innings, allowing just four hits, walking none, hitting one batter.

Ridge had a chance in the fifth. Toby Nicholson got hit by a pitch to lead it off, and Dan Rafanello singled. But on a sac bunt by Matt Bober, catcher Jackson Lewis fielded and got a force at third, then Trego got a fly ball out and a K to end the inning.

Ridge (16-5) would get one on in each of the last two innings, but fail to score.

Trego got the win for Immaculata (14-7) to improve to 4-1. Stieglitz dropped to 7-3, striking out 12 and allowing just four hits and three unearned runs in a hard luck loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from Immaculata’s Jackson Trego and Colin Kassai, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

There weren’t too many crooked numbers on the board early in Thursday’s Skyland Conference Delaware Division game between Hillsborough and No. 2 Immaculata, but there certainly were a few late.

The Spartans broke open a game they led 4-2 after four with an eight-run sixth, and improved to 8-4 overall, 7-3 in the division, with a 15-6 road victory in Hillsborough that gave them a share of the Delaware Division title, coupled with Ridge’s 11-1 loss at Hunterdon Central.

Immaculata got on the board in the second on a sac fly by Jackson Lewis, but Hillsborough took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on a ground rule double by Elijah Dawes and a groundout by Jason Williams.

The Spartans tied it with a run in the third on a solo homer by Jayden Capindica, his first of the season, then added two more in the fourth on back-to-back RBI singles by Connor Quinn and Lewis to take a 4-2 lead.

The Raiders cut the lead to one in the fifth, when T.J. Westlake came home from third on a wild pitch.

But in the top of the sixth, Immaculata sent 12 to the plate and got eight runs. The body blows included a two-RBI double by Schilling, and a two-run homer by Collin Kassai, his second of the season.

Hillsborough, trailing 12-3, got three back in the bottom of the sixth, but Immaculata answered to make it 15-6 heading to the home seventh, where the Raiders got two on, but failed to score.

Hillsborough falls to 6-8, 3-7 in the division.

Shane Borer got the loss for Hillsborough in relief of starter Krish Patel, falling to 0-1, while Immaculata starter Jackson Trego got the win, to improve to 2-1.

Click below to hear postgame reaction from Immaculata’s Jackson Tregon, Collin Kassai and head coach Kevin Cust, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: