Tag: Matt Fattore

June 14, 2024June 13, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Bridgewater-Raritan seniors reflect on 30-3, four-trophy season, as CJSR 2024 Team of the Year

The immensely successful 2024 baseball season for Bridgewater-Raritan is officially in the rear view mirror, but the seniors in particular are enjoying the fact they they are going out as champions.

They won the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, the Somerset County Tournament, the North 2, Group 4 sectional title and the state Group 4 championship, a rare feat in high school baseball. They also finished No. 1 in the final Bellamy & Son Paving Central Jersey Sports Radio rankings.

With that, we talked with three seniors, co-captains Devin Goldberg, Matt Fattore and Frankie Verano.

And on the list of accomplishments by the team, all three contributed significantly.

Goldberg – who held the single-season stolen base record with 20 last year – shattered it this year with 37 on a team that stole 157 all year, up from a previous program-best of 64 last year.

Fattore is an excellent first baseman, making picks many others wouldn’t. And he hit three home runs, all in the postseason: one in the SCT semis to break a 2-2 tie against Watchung Hills, one in the Group 4 semis against Livingston, and another in the Group 4 final versus Eastern.

And Verano? Well, heading into the Group 4 semis – the penultimate game of the year – he was hitting under .170, bugged by a balky hamstring all year, yet still managed 14 runs batted in. Sure enough, against Livingston, he knocked in two more runs, one each in his first two at bats. Sixteen RBIs would be solid on any team, for someone hitting near .300, but under .200? That’s remarkable, and a sign of how every player gave something to this Panther team.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with senior co-captains Devin Goldberg, Matt Fattore and Frankie Verano about their 2024 season:

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 5, 2024June 7, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Panthers make the finals! Bridgewater-Raritan tops Livingston 8-1 in Group 4 semis behind Komline’s pitching, Fattore’s dinger

Bridgewater-Raritan East made a Group 3 final in 1971, and Bridgewater-Raritan West won a Group 2 title in 1989.

But for the first time since the 1992 merger of those two schools, the Panthers are headed to the state finals.

They are there because of solid pitching by Kellen Komline, who wasn’t overpowering, but stranded seven runners on base in the first four innings and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth, while his team built up a 7-0 lead over the first three.

They are there because of a lot of things, but also Matt Fattore’s two-run homer in the first that was part of a four-run inning that left Komline comfortable enough to pitch out of jams.

The end result was an 8-1 win over visiting Livingston to clinch a trip to the Group 4 finals.

Bridgewater-Raritan (29-3) will travel down to Bob DeMeo Field at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton Saturday night for the state Group 4 final at 7 pm against Eastern. The Vikings (25-6) beat Jackson Memorial 7-5 Wednesday in their Group 4 semifinal.

Fattore’s home run started things off in the first after Devin Goldberg flew out but Matthew Lehberger reached on a single. Komline hit a grounder to second that made it 3-0, and Frankie Verano drove in the fourth run with a double.

The Panthers got three more in the third on an RBI single by Verano and a two-RBI single by Joe Spirra.

Livingston got its only run in the fourth, on a pair of doubles. Alex Yang reached with one out, then Julian Schultz knocked him in.

But Bridgewater got it right back in the bottom of the inning. Goldberg reached on an infield hit, stole second on catchers’ indifference, then came home after he tried to steal third but the throw from catcher John Marco Maiello deflected off the third baseman’s glove to the vacant shortstop position.

Komline got the win to improve to 3-0. Mike Lentini pitched the last two innings to close it out. The loss went to Livingston’s Tyler Chen, who fell to 3-1.

Bridgewater improves to 29-3, while head coach Max Newill picked up a milestone win. He’s now 250-186 in his 17 seasons with the Panthers.

The winner will play Saturday at 7 pm at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton in the state Group 4 final, against the winner of Wednesday’s other Group 4 semi between Central champion Jackson Memorial (18-10) and South champion Eastern (24-6), which was eliminated last year in the semis by Old Bridge.