Ramsey baseball punches ticket to state final with decisive win over Caldwell
WEST CALDWELL — Ramsey will enjoy the honor and pleasure of playing in the final game of the New Jersey high school baseball season.
The Rams' 7-2 victory over Caldwell in Monday's NJSIAA Group 2 semifinal earned them a trip to Saturday's 7 p.m. final against Haddon Heights at Veterans Park in Hamilton.
Ramsey left-hander Connor O'Hara scattered five hits over 6⅓ innings to earn the victory. He walked four, struck out four and allowed two earned runs.
“I’m just beyond thrilled to even be playing here right now,” O’Hara said. “Just to be able to go out there, play one more game now, senior year, it’s really special.”
Reliever Mike Featherstone closed it out by securing a game-ending double play. The right-hander induced a line drive to shortstop Robbie Caffrey, who stepped on second for the unassisted double play.
Ramsey had the leadoff batter reach base six times and he scored all six times. The Rams scored single runs in each of the first five innings and two in the seventh.
Will Kirk led off the third and fifth with hits and scored. He led off the seventh with a walk and scored. He made three stellar catches in right field.
Caffrey had a single, walk, sacrifice fly and two RBIs. Brooks Kanwisher had two singles and scored a run as the Rams produced nine hits.
“We grinded out for seven innings and just kept putting pressure on as much as we could,” Ramsey coach Paul Urbanovich said. “And we got another great pitching performance on the mound.”
What it means
Ramsey, which is 27-4 and has won 19 of its last 20 games, never has won a state title. The Rams won a North 1, Group 2 title in 1961, but the NJSIAA did not play down to a state champion until 1971.
The Rams' 7 p.m. game is the finale of a public school quadruple-header at Veterans Park. Kirk, a sophomore left-hander, is the team's ace and available to start.
Key inning
O'Hara got two huge outs in the second inning to keep Ramsey in the lead, 2-1. With runners on second and third and one out, he induced a liner to Kirk in shallow right and a swinging strikeout. Thus, he never had to pitch with the Rams trailing.
“It gives me huge confidence,” O’Hara said of pitching with the lead the entire game. “It’s a whole different ball game if I’m pitching 0-0, down one, or down two. It’s a lot more challenging [trailing], the nerves will get to you more, but I was able to settle in pretty nicely. It was never that big a lead, but a lead in general.”
By the numbers
The most significant number is Ramsey had the leadoff hitter reach base each of the first five innings and he scored to help build a 5-2 lead.
Caffrey led off the game with a walk and scored on Featherstone’s single through the left side. In the second, Kanwisher singled and scored on Caffrey’s single. In the third, Kirk singled and scored on Luke Monico’s sacrifice fly.
In the fourth, Aidan McNally singled and scored on Caffrey’s sacrifice fly. In the fifth, Kirk reached second on a misplayed blooper to shallow center and scored when Monico was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
“We were able to get into our style of baseball, getting guys on base and causing a little havoc on the bases,” Urbanovich said. “We didn’t have any big-run innings, we left a lot of guys on base, but just continuously got a guy on.”
Defense in right field
For the second consecutive game, Ramsey got stellar defense from a right fielder. Kirk's best catch of three was a diving grab on a ball hit to shallow right to lead off the sixth. He also chased down two hard shots in right-center with runners on base.
Kirk played deeper in right after Caldwell's Ty Fredo blasted a first-inning triple over his head.
“Going into the game, I knew their approach was to really drive the ball that way,” Kirk said. “So I just took pride for the rest of the game in being able to stay behind the ball, and luckily that suited me well to make those tough catches.”
Greg Mattura is a sports reporter for NorthJersey.com. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis from our Varsity Aces team, subscribe today. To get breaking news directly to your phone, sign up for our newsletter and download our app.
Email: mattura@northjersey.com
Twitter: @gregmattura
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ramsey NJ baseball punches ticket to state final with win vs. Caldwell
