HAMILTON - Sam Winsett’s final game was like so many of the others he has played for the Eastern Regional High School baseball team, minus the result.
The senior shortstop reached a career milestone, and had game-turning plays on both offense and defense.
On this evening at Veterans Park’s Bob DeMeo Field, it wasn’t quite enough, but it shouldn’t detract from his effort to end a truly sterling career.
Down 5-0 after two innings, Eastern fought back to get within a run on Winsett’s third-inning grand slam but could get no closer during a 6-4 loss to Bridgewater-Raritan in the state Group 4 baseball championship.
It was the second state title for Bridgewater-Raritan (30-3), which won its final 14 games of the season.
Eastern, the two-time defending South Jersey Group 4 champion, finished its season 25-7 and as usual, the Vikings competed against one of the area’s top schedules.
Still, on a day when the defense committed five errors, Eastern was still competitive, largely due to the play of Winsett.
A Coastal Carolina commit, he hit a 3-2 pitch to left-centerfield near the 360-foot sign for a grand slam and with one swing of the bat, the Vikings were very much back in this game at 5-4.
“That definitely turned it around, but it wasn’t going to matter what the score was, those guys are just going to fight no matter what,” Winsett said. “We’re just a scrappy team and we are going to fight to the last pitch.”
And leading the fight was Winsett.
Did we mention that grand slam was also the 100th career hit?
“If we won, it didn’t matter if I got my 100th or not, but obviously that is a great way to get my 100th,” said Winsett, who was 1-for-2 with a walk.
Leading up to the grand slam, left fielder Matt Gryskiewicz led off the third inning with a single and pitcher Logan Dawson drew a one-out walk before center fielder Ryder Haldeman loaded the bases on a bunt single to third base that just barely stayed fair.
Up came Winsett, who crushed the ball to left-center for his third home run of the season.
That came after Eastern’s defense had a shaky start.
Bridgewater-Raritan opened the scoring in the first when Matthew Lehberger doubled, stole third and came home on the errant throw.
The Panthers took advantage of two Eastern errors to score four second-inning runs, three of which were unearned. The big hits for the Panthers were an RBI single by Michael Taylor and a two-run single by Matt Fattore.
Keeping with the theme of the fighting Vikings, nobody battled more than Dawson, who only allowed two earned runs.
In 26 postseason innings, the junior right-hander allowed just four earned runs. Dawson kept his composure despite the miscues in the field and he gutted out a 106-pitch six-inning effort.
“I have grown the last couple of years and I realize beating myself up about things, beating my teammates up amounts to nothing,” Dawson said. “These are my brothers out there and I’ve learned so much from them, so I was having a down day, but I had to stay with them and our job is to pick each other up.”
After the home run, Eastern wouldn’t get a run past first base the rest of the game. The Panthers extended the lead to 6-4 on Fattore’s solo home run to left field in the fifth inning.
Before the game was over, Winsett would shine again, gunning a runner down at the plate on a relay throw in the sixth inning.
Still, the two-run lead was more than enough of a cushion, especially with senior right-hander Cory Rible on the mound.
An Elizabethtown commit, Rible has been a relief pitcher all year and in this setting, he threw virtually nothing but gas.
Yet the Vikings couldn’t catch up to the fastball. Rible earned the save by pitching three hitless innings, striking out seven in the process.
“I was having confidence in my fastball, but I have a great team behind me that I know will make the plays,” Rible said.
When asked if he felt it was the best performance of his career, he responded, “I hope so.”
His team was on a certified roll in the postseason. The Panthers entered the game having outscored teams 26-1 in five previous playoff wins.
Afterwards, Eastern veteran coach Rob Christ saluted the champions.
“You have to tip your hat to that other team,” Christ said. “That is probably the best hitting team we faced all year.”
Christ also talked about what Winsett has meant to the program.
“I’ve been fortunate to coach at lot of great kids and he is one of the best captains I’ve ever had and that’s not even taking into account how he is as a baseball player,” Christ said. “He’s a character kid who is truly a leader.”
The Eastern players followed his lead to the very end.
“We showed a tremendous amount of resiliency throughout the year, gelled as a team on the field and off the field,” Christ said. “We felt like we were going to win today and that was disappointing. We gave a lot away today but how could you not be proud of this group.”
Marc Narducci is a freelance reporter for the Courier-Post. He can be reached at cpvarsity@gmail.com
