With a 6-3 win over Cedar Grove in the North 2, Group 1 final, Wood-Ridge lifted a state sectional trophy for the first time in 60 years.

WOOD-RIDGE – In the 60 years between the last time Wood-Ridge won a state baseball championship and Saturday afternoon, when it was again trying to end that drought, there have been all kinds of seasons. Good ones, bad ones, mediocre ones. Seasons that have ended in big game heartbreak and others in which the Blue Devils were miles off the pace.

Just narrowing down that list to the last couple of years when Wood-Ridge, with its upgraded facilities, was probably the best Group 1 team not to have won a state sectional championship in the 2000s, and the wait had become agonizing. Two years ago Hasbrouck Heights’ lightning detection system forced a postponement that led to a pitching shuffle that ultimately worked in the Aviators’ favor as they eliminated Wood-Ridge in the semifinals and went on to win the North 1, Group 1 title.

Last year Wood-Ridge had one of the most talented senior classes in its baseball playing history and even some COVID super seniors on the roster. The Blue Devils were the No. 1 seed, they had home field advantage throughout and they had a lead in the seventh inning of the section final against Waldwick before it all came crashing down.

So it was with that baggage in tow that Mike Marchitelli trotted out to the mound with two on and one out in a tie game against Cedar Grove in another postseason nailbiter, the North 2, Group 2 final at the Wood Ridge Athletic Center.

“Sitting in the dugout I was kind of hoping that [starting pitcher] Sal [Catanzaro] was going to pull through because I have not really been in big spots like that,” said Marchitelli. “I had butterflies.”

And then Marchitelli walked the first batter he faced to load the bases.

Wood-Ridge's Sal Catanzaro pitched into the sixth inning and drove in the game-winning run with a single on this swing.

But this story does not end like the rest of them over the last 60 years. Yes, there were still tears at the end, in fact there was not a dry eye on the coaching staff when it was all over, but they were of a different kind. Marchitelli wiggled out of trouble without allowing a run in the top of the sixth, Wood-Ridge sent eight hitters to the plate and scored three times in the bottom of the sixth and Marchitelli worked a 1-2-3 seventh to kick off a celebration more than a half-century in the making.

NORTH 2, GROUP 1 STATE SECTIONAL FINAL: (1) Wood-Ridge 6, (2) Cedar Grove 3

“I can’t say enough about our players. This is a team that is a TEAM. The reason that we won is not because we had the best players on the field, we are not the best pitchers on the field we are not the best hitters on the field. We ARE the best TEAM on the field,” said Wood-Ridge head coach Mike(y) Carcich. “One through nine, they play for each other every single time. This is one our best bunch of kids in terms of camaraderie, togetherness and wanting to do it for each other.”

With both teams having used their top-of-the-rotation starting pitchers to get through the semifinal round it was next man up for both sides and Catanzaro (5 1/3 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 8 H, 4 K, 2 BB, 93 pitches) was up for it. He faced just one batter over the minimum through the first two innings, the second of which he was pitching with a 2-0 lead. Run-scoring singles by Braden Negro and Devin Arce gave Wood-Ridge a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first and kept his team in front through the first four innings.

“I came into the game a little nervous. I had no idea how good Cedar Grove was, but I knew if I just threw strikes that my teammates would back me up and make the plays behind me,” said Catanzaro, a junior left-hander. “After the first inning I settled in and I was fine. Being in the dugout with my boys, we cheer each other on and motivate each other. We all just want to do whatever we can to get a win.”

Nicolas Russo's single in the top of the fifth inning got Cedar Grove even at 3-3.

Catanzaro did stellar work in the third when Cedar Grove scored its first run when Mason Ksyniak raced home from third while Wood-Ridge had Xavier Andujar in a rundown between first and second and an error loaded the bases with two outs. Catanzaro then got a swinging strike three on a 3-2 pitch to limit the damage.

Wood-Ridge added a run with a quick two-out rally in the fourth with Liam Kelly’s two-out double was followed by a Nick Roncaioli RBI single made it 3-1.

This is Wood-Ridge baseball, however, and it was never going to come easy. An error, a passed ball, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Nick Russo all conspired to push two Cedar Grove runs across in the top of the fifth to make it 3-3 and, after the Blue Devils stranded two in the bottom of the inning, the Panthers put together another threat in the sixth.

Evan Turi, Cedar Grove’s No. 9 hitter and the last one Catanzaro faced, singled to right field and Marchitelli issued the free pass that loaded the bases. The Blue Devils never wavered as Gavin DeRobertis fielded a groundball cleanly at third and threw home for the force and Marchitelli (1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 K, BB) left ‘em loaded with a K.

When Owen Caprio reached on an error leading off the sixth, the momentum was clearly back in Wood-Ridge’s dugout. Kelly got down a bunt, Roncaioli singled and DeRobertis walked to loaded the bases with one out for Catanzaro, who snuck one through the drawn in infield to put Wood-Ridge back in front for good. Roncaioli and DeRobertis both scored on Eric Barton’s single to center to add the cushion.

“I knew that when I came up to bat with the bases loaded I knew all I had to do was put the ball on the ground,” said Catanzaro who finished 2-for-3 with an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. “Nice and hard up the middle would be perfect and that is exactly what happened.”

Mike Marchitelli pitched 1 2/3 innings of hitless and scoreless relief to pick up the win for Wood-Ridge.

The relatively drama free final inning when Marchitelli set the side down in order set off a whole lot of emotions from a whole lot of people close to the program.

“I feel like this is good and now we want to go to the [state] finals and win that, too,” said Lorenzo Barrese, a fixture in the Wood-Ridge dugout and a foul ball retrieval specialist. “I feel like part of the team and I just want to cheer them on. I was thinking negative at first, but my teammates told me to think positive and it finally worked. We were like professional sports fans when everyone runs out and goes nuts. It was real. It was real.”

There were a lot of people to thank and to credit.

“For this group to do it the way they came back on their home field after losing a heartbreaker last year and a couple of other times, this win is also for the teams that couldn’t get it done,” said Carcich. “All the guys that came before laid the foundation. The bottom line is that you do not win a state championship without having the town and the Little League and the Rec coming together. That is what Wood-Ridge has always given me and now I am happy that I can give them something back.”

Carcich models his program after another pretty good Group 1 program in Bergen County. He has said in the past that he wanted to build an Emerson South, which is to say to put together the kind of sustained success that his father Bob Carcich had at Emerson where he won seven state sectional titles and three Group 1 state titles.

The father, after watching his son take the Gatorade bath for the first time, now has a new favorite memory of small school high school baseball.

“To watch the smile on my kid’s face after he won his first state title is the capstone of my 40 years in high school sports,” said Bob Carcich. “It’s the greatest.”

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