Glen Ridge HS baseball team upsets Roselle Park to advance to section semifinals

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GLEN RIDGE, NJ – Owen Hannigan, a junior, struck out seven and fired a five-inning three-hit shutout to lift the seventh-seeded Glen Ridge High School varsity baseball team to an 11-0 upset win over second-seeded Roselle Park in the quarterfinals of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group 1 state tournament on May 26 in Roselle Park.

Jack Cotrone went 2-for-2 with a triple, two RBI and two runs; Matt Myles went 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI; Joe Hellevig went 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBI; Max Thompson went 1-for-2 with a double, walk, a run and two RBI; Brian Schnack went 1-for-2 with a run and RBI; Max Haberman went 1-for-3 with a run; and Cole Greenberg went 1-for-1 with a run and RBI for the Ridgers, who moved to a 10-13 record and will host No. 14 seed North Arlington in the semifinals May 30 at Hurrell Field. The other semifinal pits fourth-seeded Ridgefield at top-seeded Dayton in Springfield. The final is June 2.

GRHS, under second-year head coach Liam Penberthy, is seeking to reach the Section 2, Group 1 final for the second straight year. Last spring, they fell in the sectional final to Bloomfield Tech.

“Owen Hannigan found his groove on the mound and had a bounce-back performance after a rough outing” against Secaucus in the first round, said Penberthy. “When we play clean defensive game and not give teams extra outs, we give ourselves the chance to be successful. We did just that, and the outcome speaks for itself.

“From the first pitch, our guys were looking to be aggressive at the plate,” continued Penberthy. “Their guy was throwing strikes and we did a nice job putting the ball in play. We limited our strikeouts and that is a result of our guys improving on pitch selection at the plate.”