RHS Tennis Takes BC Title; Baseball, Softball Move On

The Ridgewood baseball and softball teams won this week to move on to their state sectional semi-finals while the Maroons boys tennis team grabbed the county team title.

While there is symmetry this season with the baseball and softball teams, they will have to get by the same school in both sports to get to the Group 4 North 1 state finals.

Both teams will be traveling to Morris County on Tuesday and to Morris Knolls, whose baseball and softball teams are both two-seeds, in the sectional semi-finals, both at 4 p.m. Wins against Morris Knolls would send both teams to the sectional final on Friday.

Third-seeded Ridgewood baseball moved into the Group 4 North 1 state semi-finals on Tuesday with a 14-6 victory at home over 11th-seeded Bloomfield.
And on Thursday Ridgewood softball pitcher Nicole Hroncich fired a four-hitter to shutout sixth-seeded West Orange, 7-0 in the quarterfinals.

Boys tennis

Ridgewood outscored a trio of schools to gain the Bergen County Large Schools title in three years, 2008. The Maroons took home first places in three of the five categories to register 16 points to Bergen Tech, Old Tappan and Ramapo’s 10 points each.

Senior Charlie Gundeck won the second singles with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Bergen Tech's Edward Kang while fellow senior Griffin Kurzius grabbed the third singles title with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Old Tappan's Joon Koo Lee. In addition, Sebastian Schecter and Timber Erskine collected the second doubles title with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Demarest's Duk Hwan Yoo and Andrew Zagin, 6-2, 6-2.

Coming into the May 21 semi-finals at Demarest, the Maroons had all five of its entrants still alive. In first singles Ridgewood's Chris Hu lost by default in the semi-finals to Old Tappan’s Sakura Yamaji while the first doubles team of Sam Keefer and James Smith lost 6-3, 6-4, to Bergen Tech’s Mitchell Gouzenko and Chris Park.

Baseball

Kurt Hommen had a big day with two hits and five RBI to lead the Ridgewood offense. The Maroons (17-7) were actually down 3-0 before its first wraps and Ridgewood responded by putting a four spot on the board and a 4-3 lead.
Again, the Maroons were down, this time 5-4, after Bloomfield scored two runs in the top of the second.

But Ridgewood's offense that had a dozen hits would score five runs in the bottom of the third inning with the help of Bloomfield errors and the Maroons regrabbed a lead, 9-5.

Ridgewood would not look back. In addition to Hommen's numbers, Cooper Byrne and Frank Paleno contributed a pair of RBI. Kengo Kawahara also added an RBI.   
The victory was sweet for Ridgewood who lost a shot at a Big North title on Wednesday, falling 14-0 to Paramus at Veterans Field.

The Maroons were pretty much out of it by the third inning when they went down 9-0 and struggled against Spartans pitcher Frank Colosante. Tyler Welence had the lone hit for Ridgewood.

Starting the week, the Maroons came from behind to beat 14th-seeded Clifton, 9-5, on Monday. At one point Ridgewood was down 5-1, but the Maroons trimmed the Mustangs lead to 5-3 with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. The cream rose to the top in the sixth inning with six runs to squelch Clifton's upset bid. Welence and Russell Tanner had a pair of RBI while Byrne, Mike Coniglio and Kawahara added a RBI each.

Softball

In the win over West Orange, Hroncich kept the Mountaineers offense at bay and Ridgewood's (13-4) offense slowly pulled away.

The Lady Maroons were scored a run each in the first, second and fourth innings before pulling away in the bottom of the fifth with four runs. Lauren Tom led the Ridgewood offense with a double and two RBI. Hroncich, Claire Dennis, Teresa Funk and Margo Tanner added a RBI each.

In the first round of the state tournament, the Lady Maroons got on top and stayed there against 14th-seeded Bergen Tech, 6-2. After the Knights scored a run in the third inning to cut the Ridgewood lead to 2-1, the Lady Maroons scored four runs in the fourth inning. Ridgewood received a pair of RBI from Christina Bicks and Dennis. After the 6-1 lead, Hroncich would pretty much limit the Bergen Tech hitters. The Lady Maroons pitcher allowed only five hits.

Girls track and field

The Lady Maroons came up just short of second place in the Bergen County Group A team standings on May 20 at Old Tappan High School with 81 points to Teaneck’s 91 points for second. IHA took the Group A title with 97 points.

Ridgewood topped the pole vault as senior Kayla Polcari and sophomore Mimi DeVita grabbed the top two spots easily. Mimi's sister, Sarah DeVita, continued a big senior season by winning two events, 100 meter hurdles and the high jump.
In the hurdles Sarah leaped by Immaculate Heart's Gina Carlino for first after coming second to her in the preliminaries in terms of time.

Junior Caroline Davidson scored second place finishes in all the distance races, 800, 1600 and 3200 with the close race coming to the 1,600 where the junior Maroons runner finished a little more than a second behind Northern Highlands Ariana North for first.
   
Bergen County Group Championships (Top three finishers)

• Pole vault

1. Kayla Polcari, 11-feet-6-inches
2. Mimi DeVita, 10-feet-6-inches

• 100 meter hurdles

1. Sarah DeVita, 15.07

• 800 meters

2. Caroline Davidson, 2:20.10

• 3200 meters

2. Caroline Davidson, 11:35.51

• High jump

1. Sarah DeVita, 5-feet-2-inches

• 1600 meters

2. Caroline Davidson, 5:10.87


Boys Track and Field

Ridgewood fell short of catching Don Bosco for first in the Bergen County Group A team battle, but had the best score for a public school team in the group.
The Maroons collected 98 points, behind only the Ironmen's 113, but far outdistancing Demarest, 59.20 points for second.

The Ridgewood boys team was bolstered by a distance pair, a junior jumper and a senior hurdler. Junior Levi Jennings and senior Patrick Rynkowski were one-two in both the one-mile and two-mile races while Jennings made it a clean sweep in the distance races by winning the 800 meter race.

Evan Bartlik beat out Don Bosco's Ryan Walsh in the high jump by two inches (6-feet-4 to 6-feet-2) in the high jump and came in second in the triple jump.

Bergen County Group Championships (Top three finishers)

• 800 meters

1. Levi Jennings, 1:55.76

• High Jump

1. Evan Bartlik, 6-feet-4-inches

• 100 meter hurdles

2. InSoo Hwang, 54.72

• 1600 meters

1. Levi Jennings, 4:18.03
2. Patrick Rynkowski, 4:19.50

• 110 meter hurdles

2. InSoo Hwang, 14.60
3. Matt Beausoleil, 14.67

• 3200 meters

1. Levi Jennings, 9:29.80
2. Patrick Rynkowski, 9:30.14

• Triple jump

2. Evan Bartlik, 46-2.75