Sports Recap: County Tourneys Heat Up

County tournament action heated up this weekend as both Ramapo and Indian Hills softball advanced to the quarterfinals while Ramapo boys lax and Indian Hills girls lax were both eliminated in the semifinals.

Next weekend Ramapo softball will take on IHA (16-3) while Indian Hills will square off against Ramsey (16-2) with a berth in the final four on the line.  Both games will be played on Saturday at IHA.

This week also marked the last chance for baseball teams to impress the committee with the seeding for the boys county tournament later today.

Monday

Baseball-

Raiders 1 – Old Tappan 0

Ari Kaufman threw a two hit shutout against the ninth ranked Golden Knights to give Ramapo their tenth win of the year.  Kaufman (4-0) struck out 7 and the Raiders scored the lone run on an RBI single by Ryan Dougherty in the sixth inning.

Softball-

Lady Raiders 5 – Old Tappan 0

Caitlyn Hickeymoved to 4-0 in the circle as Ramapo got RBIs from Christine Boylan, Emily Brown, JK McAvoy, Alyssa Nacco, and Melanie Psota.

Lady Braves 7 – Ramsey 3

Read about the Braves victory .

Boys Tennis-

Braves 3 – Ramsey 2

Peter Eiseman and Mike McGuire earned singles victories and the team of Craig Stanson and Harry Green earned a win in doubles play.

Girls Lax-

Lady Raiders 11 – Holy Angels 8

Ramapo got hat tricks from Shannon Larson (4 goals) and Morgan Sissler (3 goals) to help them win a close one against Holy Angels.

Tuesday

Baseball-

Raiders 11 – Passaic Valley 10 (8 innings)

PV got three runs in the 7th to tie it, but Ramapo would not be denied of the victory, scoring one in the 8th and holding on for the win.  Justin Gartner (2 RBI) and Nick Madormo (2 RBI) both homered for Ramapo and Joe Scaglione drove in 3.

Braves 6 – Demarest 3

Peter Fiumefreddo and Kurt Strittmatter each had 2 RBI to help Austin Solecitto win his 4th game of the year.

Softball-

Lady Braves 9 – Demarest 1

Seven different Braves drove in a run including Jackie Connolly who had 2 and Nicole Paiotti who hit a solo homerun.

Paramus Catholic 2 – Lady Raiders 1

Ramapo led 1-0 for four innings until North Jersey player of the year candidate, Erin Trippi, hit a two-run double in the fifth that proved to be the game-winning hit.  Melanie Psota knocked in Ramapo’s only run.

Tennis-

Raiders 4 – Fair Lawn 1

Jonathan Carcione and Daniel Lee won singles matches and the team of David Brooks and Jack Yang won their first doubles matchup and Jeff Gitlin and Jake Kaplan who their second doubles match.

Wednesday

Lacrosse-

Braves 12 – Dwight Englewood 2

Kyle Lansey netted 5 goals for IH in a convincing win over Dwight Englewood.  Tyler Walker and Trevor Larkin chipped in with 2 goals each and Eric Heinowitz had 12 saves in the cage.

Lady Braves 14 – Villa Walsh 13 (2 OT)

The Braves won a double overtime thriller behind another huge game from Natalie Carti. The sophomore had 10 points on the game, scoring 6 goals and assisting on 4 more.  Nicole Kopyta and Stephanie Stone scored 2 goals apiece and Katie Taranto, Emily Addison, Marissa Caponi, and Kayla Savage all scored one.

Thursday

Boys Lax-

Raiders 7 – Northern Highlands 5

Ramapo pulled out a big victory over the Highlanders on senior night in Franklin Lakes.  Read about it .

Baseball-

Raiders 13 – Demarest 5

Chris Liquori homered and drove in 3 to help TJ Hunt improve to 5-0 on the year.  Ari Kaufman, Cory Sala, and Chris Thompson all had 2 RBI in the win.

Braves 6 – Ridgefield Park 3

RBIs by Brady Altana, Tommy Cancalosi, Peter Fiumefreddo, Andrew Sariyan, and 2 from Jason Haddyfueled the victory for IH.  Christos Apostolou (2-1) got the win on the hill.

Softball-

Lady Raiders 7 – Demarest 2

Tori Sobel won her 7th game of the year for Ramapo. Melanie Psota tripled and drove in two runs and Lexi Graber added an RBI.

Friday

Boys Lax-

Braves 15 – Waldwick 9

Eric Heinowitz had 14 saves to help lead the Braves to victory in a high scoring matchup.  Jordan Smith scored 4 times, Kyle Lansey added a hat trick, Joey Finizio netted two, and six other Braves added a goal each.

Baseball-

Paramus 10 – Raiders 4

Matt Osieja got hit hard as the Raiders were taken down.  John Gandolfo had a homer and 3 RBI in the loss.

Bergenfield 1 – Braves 0

Jason Haddy pitched a great game but did not receive any run support as the Bears pushed across one run to get the victory.

 Softball-

Lady Braves 4 – Bergenfield 1

The Braves clinched a tie for the Big North Patriot Division title with the win, making it the sixth straight year they have won a league title! They were down 1-0 heading into the 6th inning, but scored four runs in the frame thanks to run scoring doubles by Nicole Paiotti and Morgan Levineand an RBI single off the bat of Kara Pepper.  

Paramus 4 – Lady Raiders 0

Ramapo was shutout by Tori Feorenzo who is now 12-2 on the year.  Sophie Nochta was saddled with the loss for the Raiders.

Saturday

Bergen County Softball Tournament: 2nd Round

Lady Raiders 8 – Saddle Brook 0

Tori Sobel had six strikeouts as Ramapo shutout Saddle Brook to advance to the round of eight in the Bergen County Tourney.  Christine Boylan had a big three-run double to start the scoring and Lexi Graber went 4-4 with 2 RBI.

Lady Braves 5 – Pascack Valley 0

The Braves also earned a shutout in the second round of the County Tourney.  Jackie Connolly and Morgan Levine each had 2 hits, a double, and 2 RBIs apiece and Nicole Paiotti accounted for the fifth run with an RBI triple.  Ashley DeYoung got the win by pitching a two-hit shutout.

On Saturday the softball program got another big when the Freshmen team beat Paramus 9-2 to win the Bergenfield HS Freshmen Tournament for the second year in a row.  The team is coached by Maria LaBarbiera.

Bergen County Lacrosse Tournament: Semifinals

Ridgewood 12 – Raiders 4

Ramapo fell short of getting to the county final as they were beaten by the tournament’s top seeded team, Ridgewood.  Read about it .

IHA 22 – Lady Braves 11

Indian Hills also fell just one game short of the county final with a tough loss to IHA.  The Blue Eagles did a tremendous job holding Natalie Carti in check, holding her to just 2 goals and no assists. Nicole Kopyta lead IH with 3 goals and an assist and Stephanie Stone also notched 2 goals.