Senior JT DeRiso allowed just one solo home run and went the distance to pick up the win for Pascack Valley, which used a 4-run sixth inning to top Ramapo, 4-1, in the semifinals of the Bergen County Tournament on Saturday in Demarest.

DEMAREST – Drew Kirkby’s ascendance to high pressure varsity baseball happened at an accelerated pace. When injuries hit Pascack Valley hard last season Kirkby, then a freshman, was called up and thrust into a starting position. He eventually wound up as the Panthers’ shortstop and leadoff hitter as they won a state sectional title and made it all the way to the Group 2 state final.

In a program like Pascack Valley, however, there is always competition for places and an early season back injury slowed his progress this year. He’s had to earn his way back into the starting lineup and he hasn’t backed away from the challenge. Instead, Kirkby, a left-handed hitter, forced his head coach’s hand.

“Last week at [Saint] Joe’s he came up with a big base hit, drove a run in and when we were going back and forth with the lineup today I put him in, the lefty against the righty and a good one in [Ramapo starter Charlie] Wing[field],” said Pascack Valley skipper Will Lynch. “It turned out to be the right call. Against all of my best efforts, he made me look smart.”

Against Wingfield, the Ramapo ace who had thrown five scoreless frames, Kirkby came to bat with the bases loaded and his team, the No. 2 seed in this year’s Bergen County Tournament, trailing by a run with just five precious outs remaining.

And Kirby delivered. His one-out single plated the tying and go-ahead runs and he then scored the last run in a four-spot rally that propelled the Panthers to a 4-1 victory and into next weekend’s county championship game where they will play top-seeded Don Bosco Prep. The Ironmen breezed past No. 5 NV/Old Tappan, 12-0 in four-and-a-half innings, in the second game of the semifinal doubleheader on Saturday at Northern Valley/Demarest High School.

“I just went up there looking to do a job, find something I could put the barrel on. The guys before me did a great job getting on and I wanted to find a way to do something to help contribute to a win,” said Kirkby, who grounded into a fielder’s choice and struck out in his first two at bats. “He got the best of me a couple of times but I got to see his stuff. Not a lot of fastballs, a lot of curveballs and he threw the ball well, it was just my third time through. I could pick up spin better and I found something I could barrel up and I was fortunate enough that it got through [the infield].”

Brody Barber rounding third after his fourth inning homer gave Ramapo a 1-0 lead.

Wingfield (6 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 8 H, 4 K, 0 BB, 90 pitches) had smothered the circular PV lineup the first two-plus times through the order. Over the first five innings he allowed just five hits (all singles), no walks and no runs and was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Pascack Valley ace JT DeRiso.

The only difference between the two was Brody Barber’s solo home run leading off the top of the fourth inning that gave Ramapo (19-4) the 1-0 lead it carried all the way into the home half of the sixth.

Nick Donofrio, PV’s senior catcher, changed the momentum with one swing as he singled leading off the bottom of the sixth before being replaced by courtesy runner Brayden Morgan.

“I was sitting slider and off-speed pitch. He threw me a first-pitch slider and I took it for 1-0,” said Donofrio. “He threw me a slider again, kind of middle-up, and I sent it up the middle for a single to get us started and help my team win.”

Morgan went to second when the next batter, senior Trevor Kirkby, singled and both runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. That forced the infield in before Wingfield got a K for the first out of the inning. He got second consecutive K, but that one came with a caveat. It was a swinging strike three on a ball in the dirt, so Sam Stalb hustled down to first and made it safely without a throw even being made. That loaded the bases for Drew Kirkby, who promptly put PV in front for the first time in the game and for good.

Stalb scored on a wild pitch and Drew Kirkby made it a four-run frame when he scored on Colin McMorrow’s sacrifice fly.

The sudden bonanza of run support made a winner out of DeRiso and it was nothing more than he deserved. The soft-spoken, soft-tossing lefty again was masterful, this time against one of North Jersey’s toughest public school lineups, but not before the Raiders raised one more ruckus.

Nick Donofrio lining up the lead off single in the bottom of the sixth inning that led to Pascack Valley's 4-run rally.

DeRiso (7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 1 BB, W, 106 pitches) hit Jason Sansone, the leadoff batter in the top of the seventh, with a pitch for the second time in the game. He then gave up a one-out single to Liam Hayward and issued a two-walk, the only free pass he surrendered in the game, to Alex Bellovich to load the bases, but a swinging strike three put the last stroke on DeRiso’s masterpiece.

“My stuff was pretty good. I made a couple of bad pitches, but that is all right. The one to Barber wasn’t my best pitch, but it was a good swing by him. He’s a good hitter, so it was cool,” said DeRiso, who obviously enjoyed the game-within-the-game, which was his duel with Wingfield. “He is a great player and I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t know him personally, but everybody I have talked to says he is a great kid, a great player and a hard-worker. This game was all about my teammates. They rallied for four runs against a pitcher like that in the sixth inning and it allowed me to relax.”

Barber was 2-for-4 with the home run and a double and he scored and drove in Ramapo’s lone run. Hayward was 3-for-4 with three singles and Danny Poppe had a two-out single in the fourth. The other six spots in the order were a combined 0-for-16 against DeRiso, who does not overpower anyone, but yields more bad swings than hard-hit balls by a wide ratio.

It’s no fluke. He does it all the time and will probably continue to do so next year when he slides into the rotation at William Paterson University.

“I’d put him against anybody else in this whole state, game-in/game-out. He didn’t even really have his curveball today. The kid Barber hit the home run off his curve and the double off his curve so we went to his change-up, which was outstanding,” said Lynch, who calls the pitches. “His change-up runs, it runs away and it dies and it comes out of his hand in the same motion. It’s his best pitch by far because he doesn’t throw 92. He throws 82, but you saw it all day long. There are just no barrels. No barrels and that that is who he is.”

DeRiso will also likely be the starting pitcher next week when Pascack Valley (16-5) plays for a county title against Bosco (19-2), which has not lost to a public school team since May 9, 2023, a 4-2 loss to Clifton more than two years ago.

Pascack Valley made the Group 2 state final in 2024 and played on the final day of the season, but a county final, especially in Bergen County where more than 50 schools sponsor baseball programs, is a different beast.

“I am a big fan of counties. There is only one champion per county, states you can go all over and different teams can win it in the same year. And Bergen County is really competitive,” said Donofrio, who left Don Bosco Prep to return home and now has a chance to complete the circle. “It’s going to be a blast and I am, for sure, going to be locked in for seven innings. I am looking forward to that.”

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