Watchung Hills celebrates its first Somerset County Tournament championship in 17 years.
By Rich Bevensee
It wasn’t an unreasonable conclusion to reach. With hard-throwing, Wake Forest-bound lefty Ryan Auten on the mound for the championship game, top-seeded Immaculata, ranked No. 5 in the NJ.com Top 20, was the clear favorite to win its second straight title in the 52nd edition of the Somerset County Tournament.
Lucas Sheehan, lesser known around the county but not after Friday, had something to say about that.
In what his coaches and teammates declared as his best performance in his two years with the Watchung Hills program, Sheehan proved more than equal to Auten, who was downright dominant until his final inning.
The sophomore right-hander outdueled Auten by pitching a three-hit shutout and carried the second-seeded and No. 17 Warriors to a 1-0, eight-inning victory and their first county championship in 17 years on Friday afternoon at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.
“I think going into this game, everyone thought Immaculata was going to win. They were definitely the favorite,” Sheehan said. “I knew in my mind we had the capability to upset them, and we did.”
Watchung Hills (15-7) secured its first county title since 2009, its sixth overall, and the first county title in the 12-year tenure of coach Joe Tremarco, a 1997 graduate of the Warren school. He led the Warriors to back-to-back finals appearances in 2015 and ‘16 when his teams lost to Hillsborough and Montgomery.
Lucas Sheehan and catcher Jacob Jaconski begin celebration after Watchung Hills edged Immaculata for the SCT title.
David Begarney led off the top of the eighth by pinch-hitting for Bennett Dealaman and promptly singled the first pitch he saw from Auten into right field, setting the table for Watchung Hills dramatic victory. It was Begarney’s first at bat of the season. Credit coach Tremarco’s fearlessness, too.
“The whole time my mindset was swing at the first pitch – curveball, fastball, changeup, whatever it was,” Begarney said. “It was a changeup down the middle. I was told he was throwing down the middle first pitch so I swung at it. I thought he was going to throw a fastball. It was insane. Such a dream come true.”
Begarney stole second with one out and moved to third after the throw eluded shortstop Justin Labrador. Auten got a strikeout for the second out, but DiGeronimo singled into right field to drive in Begarney with what would prove to be the winning run.
“This is huge for our community, for our school,” Tremarco said. “The guys who reached out that I played with, we could never get it done. To be able to coach these guys and see them get it done, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Immaculata (20-5) averaged just over six runs per game this season and entered the final on a seven-game win streak. But the Spartans managed just three hits off Sheehan, who retired the first 10 batters and waded through only one dangerous rally.
“Honestly I thought we hit the ball very well today,” Immaculata coach Kevin Cust said. “But we just couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
Brady Simo singles in the second inning for Watchung Hills.
Immaculata had managed just four hits the day before in a 1-0 victory over West Morris.
Sheehan was resilient in the handful of times he was tested. Relying on his two-seam fastball and slider, Sheehan loaded the bases with two walks and a bloop single with one out in the fifth, then retired the side with an infield popup and a fielder’s choice.
He allowed three walks and struck out two over his efficient 88 pitches.
“This is the best command he’s had all season – by far,” Watchung Hills senior catcher Jacob Jaconski said. “I don’t know what it was. The best players play up when the moment’s the biggest and Sheehan did that today. His best start in two years, absolutely.”
That assessment ran opposite from what Sheehan was experiencing in the bullpen before the game.
Immaculata catcher Owen Schilling greets pitcher Ryan Auten after Auten struck out the side in the seventh inning.
“Honestly, warming up before the game I was all over the place in the bullpen,” Sheehan said. “When I got on that mound, I knew it was in me to win this game for our boys.”
Watchung Hills’ No. 1 pitcher, Rob Centamore, had stifled a hard-hitting Ridge team in the SCT semis, 4-2, which meant Sheehan would get the ball for the final.
Even in the eighth, when Immaculata waged one last charge, Sheehan didn’t waver. Jackson Lewis had a one-out single and Justin Labrador was hit by a pitch with two out. But Sheehan got the always dangerous Owen Schilling to ground to shortstop Stef DiGeronimo, who flipped to second for the force and the final out of the tournament. It was a bang-bang play at second that triggered an argument from Immaculata as Watchung Hills celebrated.
“When (the umpire) threw up that arm and I saw everyone rushing at me, it was like I blacked out,” Sheehan said. “I was like holy crap, this is happening, we actually pulled it out.”
Auten, who did more damage with his offspeed offerings than with his 90-mph fastball, struck out 15 and allowed just three hits going into the eighth. After 111 pitches, Auten did not surrender a single walk.
Immaculata coach Kevin Cust said there was no doubt his ace was pitching into extra innings.
“Ryan’s our guy. He’s been great all year,” Cust said. “In the end they threw a bat at a ball and it’s a hit. It is what it is. He throws strikes with all his pitches. He did a great job for us. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any runs for him. That’s the way it goes.”
If Sheehan was the biggest hero of the game for Watchung Hills, then Begarney, Brody Griffith and DiGeronimo played major supporting roles.
In Immaculata’s half of the sixth, Schilling earned a one-out walk. Owen Rivenbark drilled a sinking liner to left that Griffith misjudged at first. He corrected his path and made a sensational, horizontal stab at the liner in the left-center field gap to rob Rivenbark of what could have been a run-scoring double. A stunned Schilling, who was already heading into third base, could only watch as the relay to first turned into an inning-ending double play.
“It was a movie. It was phenomenal,” Griffith said. “I picked the ball up a little late. I was running toward it and I was hoping it would be a little shorter than what it was, but in the end I made the play and that’s what matters.”
These teams split their regular season series, with Watchung Hills winning, 10-0, on May 5 and Immaculata winning, 6-0, two days later. In that rubber match, Auten pitched a three-hit, six-inning shutout with 12 strikeouts. He entered the final with a 0.83 ERA.
“We knew we had that guy (Auten) on the mound and we knew it would take everything we had,” Tremarco said. “The baseball gods were on our side.”
Immaculata was gunning for its 16th county title; the Spartans’ 15 titles is eight more than the next closest program, Ridge.
The loss marked the first time Immaculata lost an SCT final since 2005 when it bowed to Hillsborough. The Somerville school was unbeaten in its last six appearances in the final.