Glen Ridge 18U baseball team thrives this summer

GLEN RiDGE, NJ – For the Glen Ridge 18U baseball team, the main goal for the summer is gaining valuable experience for the high school season next spring.

Winning a championship is a bonus.

Glen Ridge had a chance to defend its High School Developmental League-Essex Division silver tournament championship. Under head coach John McAndrew, eighth-seeded Glen Ridge was scheduled to face second-seeded Columbia in the final on Tuesday, July 23, at Memorial Park in Maplewood.

It marked a rematch of last summer’s final.

The game was postponed twice on Thursday, July 18, and Monday, July 22, due to bad weather.

The tournament consisted of the eight teams in the division that did not finish in the top three in the standings. The top three teams were Montclair, West Essex and Cedar Grove, which all qualified for the state tournament.

Glen Ridge upset No. 1 seed Caldwell, 7-5, in nine innings in the first round before defeating fifth-seeded Belleville, 12-0, in the semifinals.

Columbia received a forfeit against seventh-seeded Montclair Kimberley Academy and defeated Bloomfield, 12-6, in the semifinals.

Last summer, in McAndrew’s first year coaching the team, Glen Ridge did not win a game until the final regular-season game. Glen Ridge then got hot in the tournament, culminating with the 8-4 win over Columbia in the final.

This spring, GRHS endured a tough season, finishing with an 8-14 overall record. McAndrew joined the program as an assistant under head coach Liam Penberthy, a fellow Bloomfield High School graduate, Class of 2009.

For McAndrew, coaching the team again this summer has been enjoyable.

“The kids are loving it,” said McAndrew, a 2014 Bloomfield High School graduate. “It makes me have a lot of fun because I like having fun with these kids. My first year, last year, with the Glen Ridge team, we didn’t win a game until the last regular-season game, and then went on to win the championship, so that was pretty good. I believe we won four or five games this year, and now we’re moving on to the championship.”

The rising sophomores for Glen Ridge are catcher Mike Cifelli, third baseman/pitcher Zach Gold, pitcher/first baseman/third baseman Tyler Johnson, and infielder Justin Fields. Other players having a fine  summer are rising senior captain/shortstop/center fielder Aidan Brennan, rising junior captain/outfielder Will Greenberg, rising freshman pitcher/infielder Eli Gottlieb, and rising freshman left-handed pitcher/first baseman Tyler Benjamin.

McAndrew has been impressed by the players.

“Being my first year coaching varsity, being Liam Penberthy assistant; I noticed some of these qualities that these sophomores have, you don’t see a lot at that age when you’re a freshman. They have an attitude and a drive that they wanted to be on the field and do everything they could to succeed on the field. They don’t seem to back away from anything, which is really an impressive quality. For young kids, it’s something that I am amazed by. They are able to stay loose on the field, slow the game down, see things through. They are a very good group.”

The Ridgers played in back-to-back North 2, Group 1 sectional finals in 2016 and 2017, winning it in the latter season. Though the last two seasons have been tough, the future looks bright for the program.

“We have a lot of young talent coming through the ranks next year. We’re set up hopefully for a couple of years of success,” McAndrew said.