Kingsway's comeback bid falls short in state Group 4 baseball final

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PISCATAWAY – The resiliency and fight that the Kingsway Regional High School baseball team has showed all season was readily on display in the state Group 4 baseball championship game.  

Trailing 7-0 entering the bottom of the second inning, the Dragons stormed back but its madcap comeback attempt came up just short in a 7-6 loss to Ridgewood in the state Group 4 championship at Rutgers University’s Bainton Field.

Kingsway (24-6) was seeking its first-ever state title after winning its first South Jersey championship since 1992. Ridgewood (25-7) won its third state title, with the others in 2019 and 2023.

Even in the bottom of the seventh inning, Kingsway fought to the end. Winning pitcher Brady Ross got the first two batters out in the seventh. Then Kingsway’s AJ Ward, who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, singled just past the outstretched reach of second baseman Justin Loffredo, and Austin Schmidt followed with a single. putting runners on first and third. After a 2-1 count to Nate Bott, he was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Ridgewood’s Ross then induced a game-ending popup to second base.

Kingsway coach Bill Alvaro Jr. expected and received a top-flight effort from his team after digging itself in that huge 7-run hole.

“We said all along that we were going to play a full game,” Alvaro said. “There was no doubt that we were going to put some runs up and we just had to settle down and start playing the way we normally play and that is when we got back in the game.”

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Wild Swings

Ridgewood jolted Kingsway with five runs in the first inning. Three of the first four batters reached base on two walks and a hit by pitch. Then first baseman Hudson Feeney had the biggest hit of the game, drilling a 1-1 fastball down the third base line for a three-run double.

“I got a low fastball, which is a pitch I really like and hit it pretty hard past (third),” Feeney said. “That was my only hit of the game but that opened things up in the first inning.”

An RBI double by Loffredo and an RBI single by Brody Perrapato accounted for the other first innings runs.

In the top of the second, Ridgewood extended the lead to 7-0, scoring on a wild pitch and an RBI single by Kotaro Kim and it left some wondering whether the 10-run mercy rule may come into play.

Kingsway settled down and scored twice in the second on two wild pitches. The Dragons then got back in the game with four runs in the third inning on Ward’s two-run single, a sacrifice fly by Ashton Ford and then yet another on a wild pitch, with Austin Schmidt scoring.

So, after three innings it was 7-6 Ridgewood and few would have thought that is how things would end after such a crazy start.

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Quality relief pitching

The relief pitching for both teams was door-shutting strong. Ross pitched four-plus scoreless innings to earn the win, allowing three hits and striking out two.

Kingsway’s Brody Racan pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings in relief and was followed by Nate Bott who not only threw four scoreless innings, but allowed just two hits and struck out eight.

It was only his fourth pitching appearance of the season, but third in the playoffs after earlier suffering injuries that wouldn’t allow him to pitch for much of the season, although he continued to play third base.

“It was my first time coming out of the pen in a bit that I felt like my stuff was there, like it usually is when I start,” said Bott, who has been recruited as a pitcher for Delaware.  

While Bott was happy with how he threw, the dejection over the outcome was clearly visible.

“We fought through the whole game, but it stinks to come up short like that,” he said.

Closing the book on a banner season

Maybe in a few days or weeks the Kingsway players will realize how much they accomplished. It probably wasn’t happening on the long bus ride home. Still, Alvaro will accentuate the positives to his team.

“Group 4 is hard and for these guys to start realizing that and to start being successful in Group 4, it is a big accomplishment, a big step,” Alvaro said.

Despite the loss, the players and Alvaro understood that a team can accomplish quite a bit, even without winning that final game.

“Every day we have been out here for our guys, it is the heart we have, and I wouldn’t trade this team in for the world,” Ward said. “Everything we do is for each other and when we were down today, we were still up in the dugout. You can tell that we will always be up for our guys.”

Marc Narducci is a freelance reporter for the Courier-Post. He can be reached at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Ridgewood beats Kingsway for state baseball title

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