The last five years for Randolph baseball have been a steady progression under Mark Rizzi.

The former longtime Rutgers-Newark baseball head coach, who spent 17 seasons there, arrived at Randolph in 2019, and his teams have only gotten better since.

After his debut season saw the Rams go just 7-14, they came back from the missed pandemic year with a 12-9 record in 2021, then went 13-12 and 14-12.

This year? They’ve reached the 20-win plateau at 20-9.

That’s the Randolph team that will take the field in South Plainfield Monday afternoon, as the second-seeded Rams visit the top-seeded Tigers for the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 title. It’s a game that can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame set for 1:40 pm, and first pitch at 2:00. Click here to listen.

Randolph has good senior leadership yet again. Connor Stokoe, who plays second and third, has a team-best 33 RBIs and is hitting .370 with a team-best five home runs, while junior shortstop AJ Terry is tops with a .453 batting average and 39 hits.

But Rizzi says some key sophomores have been the difference this year. That includes players like outfielder Jackson Magley (.286), Chase Lorent (.388) and RJ Dougherty (.293, 18 RBI).

Senior Tommy Martin is expected to get the start. He’s 7-1 with a 1.57 ERA and a solid strikeout-to-walk ratio: 65Ks and 13 walks on the year. He’s tossed 58 innings already.

Click below to listen to Randolph head coach Mark Rizzi talk about the Rams’ season, and Monday’s title game against South Plainfield: