Montgomery rallied three times – the last time coming in the bottom of the seventh inning – to beat Pingry in a Skyland Conference crossover game, 11-10, with a two-out, bases loaded, walk-off infield hit by senior Evan Puleio.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas call all the play-by-play live from TD Bank Park in Bridgewater on April 11, 2026.
One thing about baseball: the bats could be alive one day and completely dormant the next.
The Montgomery bats had mostly been dormant this season, with the Cougars hitting just .182 coming into Saturday afternoon’s Skyland Conference crossover game at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater, heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
But Saturday, everything clicked, even if it took them a while to get going.
Montgomery rallied three times against the Big Blue. Down 4-0 after the first half inning, the Cougars got a run back in the bottom, then four more in the third to take their first lead of the game at 5-4.
Pingry got three back in the fifth to take a 7-5 lead, and added one more in the sixth, but Montgomery tied it at eight with three in the sixth.
Then, after the Big Blue got two in the top of the seventh, Monty walked it off with three in the bottom of the inning, to pull to within a game of .500 at 3-4. Pingry dropped to 2-3.
In the decisive eighth, Montgomery had to feel good about its chances with the top of the order coming up, after the bottom half of the order had forced an 8-8 tie in the sixth.
With one out, Mason Neufield hit a double into the gap in left, and Henry Maddox – who had four hits in the game: two singles, a double and a triple – drove him in with a single to cut the deficit to 10-9.
Liam McDonald singled to move him to third, and Kenta Komatsu walked to lead the bases. Patrick Fogarty – who started the game on the mound and by now was playing shortstop, drove in the tying tun with a fly ball to right field, scoring Maddox.
Then Puleio worked the count to 3-2, and with the runners off with the pitch, knuckled a ball halfway down the third-base line. Pingry’s Sam deLaurier charged it as McDonnell slid safely into home, and somehow he got a throw off to first. But Puleio – a catcher – legged it out, beating the throw, setting off a wild celebration along the first base side.
It was the most runs Montgomery had scored since a 13-1 season-opening win over Warren Hills. They had scored just six runs in the five games that followed, going 1-4, including a 4-0 shutout at the hands of North Hunterdon. And they knocked out 12 hits in the game as well.
All this despite the fact Monty left nine runners on base through the first six innings, not counting those left on with the walk-off win.
The win went to Mason Neufeld in relief, the fourth pitcher used by head coach Pete Meuller. Neufeld threw one inning and gave up two runs to improve to 2-1 on the year. Michael Cardona – Pingry’s sixth pitcher of the day – took the loss, pitching the seventh; he’s now 2-1.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen with Montgomery’s Evan Puleio, Henry Maddox and head coach Pete Mueller:
After rolling with an underclassman-heavy squad last year, there’s no shortage of familiar faces in the Pingry dugout this season.
The Big Blue have brought back almost their entire roster, graduating only four seniors from the 2025 season. Pingry’s offense returns several hitters who played key roles at a young age, as three of the top four RBI leaders – Aaron Wu, Sam de Laurier and Riley Wong – were freshmen or sophomores last season.
The Big Blue split the first four games of the season at 2-2, most recently going 1-1 against Warren Hills. The trio of Wu, de Laurier and Varneckas has picked up right where it left off: they have ten of Pingry’s 18 RBIs so far this season.
They’ll take all that offense to TD Bank Park in Bridgewater Saturday afternoon, as the Big Blue battle Montgomery (2-4) in a Valley-Raritan Division crossover in Skyland Conference play. You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio at 2 pm, with pregame set for 1:40. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas are on the call; click here to listen.
On the pitching side, And four different pitchers have taken the mound already for Pingry, three with good starts, as senior Michael Cardona leads the way with a 1.27 ERA in 11 innings thrown. Langston McDonald (2.47 ERA) and Shane Varneckas (3.32 ERA) have also seen a heavy workload early this season.
They’ll face a Montgomery lineup that, thus far, has struggled a bit at the plate, but probably won’t for long. Sophomore Michael Englert, who went 3-for-5 with a triple and five RBI in the season-opener against Warren Hills – a 13-1 victory – could be back in the lineup Saturday after tweaking his knee in that game.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas talk with Pingry head coach Anthony Feltre:
Peter Mueller – the veteran skipper who has been the Montgomery baseball coach for a quarter century, racking up over 300 wins – knows a thing or two about getting a team ready for the season.
He felt really confident about his team heading into 2026 with a good mix of veterans and younger players, and he still does, despite a 2-4 start to the season against a challenging schedule that’s included the likes of Ridge – a Somerset County Tournament finalist from a year ago, as well as a Hillsborough team that won Central Jersey Group 4, and always-tough-to-beat North Hunterdon.
And well he should.
Saturday afternoon, the Cougars get a chance to move within a game of .500 when they play the home team against Pingry at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater. It’s a 2 pm game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas. Pregame is set for 1:40, click here to listen.
One of the bright spots so far at the plate has been junior Alex Bender, who’s hitting .412 with five runs scored and three stolen bases. Sophomore Michael Englert, an “insanely athletic” left fielder who went 3-for-5 with a triple and five RBI in the season opener – a 13-1 win over Warren Hills – tweaked his knee in that game, and has missed the last five games, but could be back in the lineup against the Big Blue.
On the mound, the Cougars have gotten some good work, but just been on the wrong end of a couple of tough games. And it’s an experienced group, too. Senior Jake Hayes already has thrown a dozen innings, with a 2.84 ERA, but he’s 1-2 on the season, while fellow senior Liam McDonnell is 0-1, but with an ERA of just 1.91. He gave up just two earned runs in a 4-1 loss to Hightstown.
Click below to hear Montgomery head coach Peter Mueller talk about the early season and Saturday’s matchup against Pingry with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
As the ground continues to thaw — and the wind continues to whip, as it did Tuesday — Watchung Hills’ offense has stayed hot, on the way to a 2-1 start.
The Warriors have scored 22 runs in three games, an average of just over seven per contest. And they’ll take their solid play back home for a Thursday matchup against Bridgewater-Raritan. They already faced the Panthers once, a 9-1 victory on Tuesday, and are looking for the sweep as the season starts to get fully in swing.
Watchung Hills eagerly awaits the finale of the two-game home-and-home set. That’s a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with first pitch at 4 pm and pregame at 3:40, with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Click here to listen.
The hitting and pitching stood out on Tuesday, as a classic pitcher’s duel between top arms Kellan Komline (BR) and Robbie Centamore (WH) set up a 2-1 game after four innings. But from there, both outings went in different directions.
Komline left the game after picking up two outs in the fifth, but the Warriors were already in full swing. They tacked on seven unanswered runs to end the game, as Centamore went six strong innings with 12 strikeouts.
Watchung Hills returns a key core of veterans after graduating a few of their top hitters from last year’s team. But it’s not like the new elder statesmen are filling new roles. This veteran group has seen a lot of varsity experience from a young age, and have developed under 13th-year head coach Joe Tremarco.
Centamore helps get everyone going both on the mound and at the plate. Stef DeGeronimo and Landon Pudlak — a junior and senior, respectively — continue their reign in the Warriors’ middle infield and are off to solid starts once again. Centamore and fellow senior Jacob Jaconski each pace the team with five hits in the early goings, and the lineup has produced at a high level, no matter who steps into the batter’s box.
On the pitching side, Watchung Hills is looking to a few veterans to fill out the rotation as an important secondary pitcher, including senior Isaac Russell. Centamore has thrown the lion’s share of innings so far, but won’t get the ball next after his stellar outing on Tuesday. In the bullpen, junior Caden Dias has emerged as a weapon out of the bullpen with three scoreless innings in the Warriors’ two wins so far.
As the sun continues to shine later, and the afternoons heat up, Watchung Hills looks to stay hot with its third win in four games to start the campaign.
Click below to hear Alec Crouthamel talk with Watchung Hills head coach Joe Tremarco about the first week of the season, and Thursday’s game against Bridgewater-Raritan:
A look at the score from Tuesday’s 9-1 loss to Watchung Hills doesn’t quite tell the whole story of how that game went down.
It was a 2-1 game until Bridgewater-Raritan got dinked and dunked to the tune of four runs by the Warriors, and it ended up being a 9-1 final.
Maybe a more experienced team wins that game later in the season. Maybe without early-season pitch limits set by coaches so they don’t burn out arms in April, Kellan Komline goes a little longer.
They’re not excuses, but the reality of the situation. Then again, all you can do is get back on the horse, and try, try again.
That’s what the Panthers will do on Thursday afternoon when they travel up to Warren Township for the finale of the two-game home-and-home set against Watchung Hills. That’s a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with first pitch at 4 pm and pregame at 3:40, with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Click here to listen.
Komline is one of the biggest returning veterans. He’s 1-1 on the season, and has struck out 14, walking eight, while allowing five earned runs, seven total.
He and catcher and fellow senior Michael Lobosco are the only two full-time returning starters from last season. Lobosco hit .295 last year with eleven runs batted in. Komline threw 41 innings, with a 0.68 ERA, while hitting .272 at the plate, playing centerfield when he wasn’t on the mound.
And yet, this season’s top two hitters – yes, it’s early still – are freshmen. There’s Nick Spirra, who’s likely to start at second base Thursday, hitting .417 with a team-best five RBIs, while leadoff hitter Andrew Schmeider – a rightfielder with a “physicality you don’t see much in a freshman,” according to head coach Max Newill, it 4-for-8 on the year with three runs batted in, and already a team-high six walks.
That’s just what you want for a leadoff hitter. Now – with just five regulars hitting better than .200 – the Panthers hope that hitting truly is contagious, and will work its way down through the rest of the lineup.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Bridgewter-Raritan head coach Max Newill about the first week of the season, and Thursday’s game against Watchung Hills:
The high school baseball season is already a week old, though a few got started a little earlier than most, but more than a few have started the 2026 campaign red hot.
Some were expected, others have turned out to be pleasant surprises.
And that could juggle our first in-season Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, the Week One edition of which comes out Monday morning.
Here’s a look at who’s gotten the season off to a great start after the first week or so or play in the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area, with a minimum of three games played..
GREATER MIDDLESEX CONFERENCE
Red Division
White Division
Blue Division
SOMERSET COUNTY
Skyland Conference, Delaware Division
Second-ranked Immaculata got three late runs – one in each of the final three innings – and a combined one-hitter from starting pitcher Cole Raymond and reliever Bryson Auten to beat No. 8 Hillsborough on the road on Opening Day 2026, 3-0.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play live from Hillsbrough High School on March 31, 2026.
Ryan Auten is the senior pitcher heading to Wake Forest, but it was his freshman brother, Bryson, who got the win Tuesday on Opening Day for Immaculata.
Cole Raymond made his first start, after coming out of the bullpen last season, and went 3 1/3 innings without allowing a hit or a run, and just three baserunners. But Bryson Auten got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth out of the ‘pen, then finished things off for a 3-0 win for No. 2 Immaculata at No. 8 Hillsborough on Opening Day, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Bryson got the win – as the game was scoreless when he entered – thtrowing 3 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit, striking out six.
Early-season baseball in the Northeast is hardly pretty, but with a game-time temprature of 81 degrees, and a solid breeze that turned into a gusty wind from time-time-time, it was more like early May baseball, and the play reflected it, with both starting pitchers having good control.
Raymond struck out five and walked two, while Hillsborough starter Shane Borer – who barely threw more than six innings all year last year – went 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two earned rund on four hits, walking one and striking out five.
And the defense was solid, too, even though Immaculata was charged with two tough errors, neither of which came back to bite them.
Scoreless into the fifth, Immaculata got a run in each of the last three innings. In the fifth, No. 7 hitter Connor Quinn reached on a one-out double down thwe left field line. Owen Rivernbark walked, and Quinn moved to third on a 5-4 fielder’s choice, then came home on a wild pitch to leadoff hitter Luca Catanzarite.
In the sixth, Immaculata picked up another run on an RBI single up the middle by Brian Cilento, who drove in Nehemiah Diaz from third. He’d reached on a single, and stole second and third during Cilento’s at bat to earn him an easy trot home.
Then, in the seventh, the Spartans got one more for insurance. Quinn singled to lead off the inning, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and later stole third. After Rivenbark walked, Gino Spigarelli grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to bring in Quinn with his second run scored of the game.
Hillsborough threatened in the fourth, getting runners on second and third, but ‘Lata brought in Bryson Auten to get out of the jam, and he did just that in his first high school pitching appearance, getting Samuel Malone to fly out to right, and Matt Battoglia to strike out looking to end the inning.
They had another chance in the fifth, with Anthony Guerrero reaching on a one-out walk, and evenutally advancing to third on a couple of wild pitches by Auten, but the freshman wound up striking out the side to escape unscathed.
Hillsborough (0-1) faces Montgomery Wednesday before visiting Immaculata (1-0) – which is off Wednesday – to finish the two-game set out at Dimaond Nation.
Click below to hear postgame reaction from Alec Crouthamel with Immaculata head coach Kevin Cust, pitcheer Bryson Auten and first baseman Conor Quinn, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
It’s a tale of two units for Immaculata’s baseball team, with the 2026 season about to get underway.
The batters are young, the pitchers are old.
The defending Somerset County Tournament champions bring back a veteran pitching staff, while the lineup features some youth, with five of the nine projected starters sophomores or younger.
But don’t let the inexperience fool you. The Spartans have talent all over the roster and are ready to put it on full display to open the year. And it all gets started on Tuesday with a 15-minute drive down Route 206.
No. 2 Immaculata travels to No. 8 Hillsborough at 4 pm to get the 2026 season going, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel have the call, with pregame set for 3:45 pm;Â click here to listen.
Southpaws Ryan Auten and Cole Raymond lead a pitching rotation that does return plenty of production. Raymond enters the rotation for the first time after serving as a high-leverage reliever in 2025, and will get the ball on Opening Day. Auten — signed to pitch at Wake Forest next year — looks to continue to build on a terrific junior campaign as one of the area’s top pitchers.
Those two will be relied on for much of the starting work to begin, as senior righty Jackson Trego — who led the Spartans in innings pitched last year — eases his way back into the rotation after dealing with a shoulder injury. Once he makes his return, the pitching will be full speed ahead for Immaculata.
As for the bats, 14th-year head coach Kevin Cust described many of his young hitters as exciting, talented baseball players with plenty of potential.
The senior trio of Jackson Lewis, Connor Quinn, and Owen Schilling brings the lion’s share of experience, but there’s a lot of eyebrow-raising underclassmen as well.
Freshman Bryson Auten — younger brother of Ryan — is described as “a beast” and has some solid pitching chops in addition to a powerful hit tool. Second baseman Luca Catanzarite built up plenty of experience as a freshman last year, and now takes the role of the speedy and ultra-aggressive leadoff bat. Sophomore Brian Cilento put up over 800 yards on the gridiron as the Spartans’ starting running back, and now will take his talents to the diamond as a high-caliber athlete, and a “great addition” to the roster, as Cust put it.
And there’s plenty more talent up and down the lineup past just the ones listed. Immaculata looms as a Somerset County contender once again thanks to a veteran pitching staff that has played in plenty of big games, and a young lineup just waiting to realize its full potential after a strong offseason and preseason.
Both teams will kick things off on the final day of March.
Click below to hear Immaculata baseball coach Kevin Cust talk about the Spartans’ upcoming season and their opening day matchup against Hillsborough with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel: