The Ramsey Rams took down the two time defending champion Governor Livingston Highlanders 10-4 in the NJSIAA Group 2 Tournament Final. The school has now won two state titles in four years.
Junior pitcher Joe Scarnecchia took a line drive to the head a day before opening day and was sidelined for a month. On Sunday night, in the most important game of all, he pitched the entire seven innings, only let up two hits and one earned run, and essentially carried his team to a championship.
“I’m so hyped, you know, going into this, we knew they had a history of winning in the past two years, and going into this, we were like, we don’t really care who they are.” Scarnecchia said. “House money at the end of the day, our coach has been saying this the whole state run. House money, you know. We were favored in a lot of games to lose. And our goal going into this was just play seven innings, out by out, pitch by pitch, batter by batter, see what happens at the end of the day. So I’m really excited that we won.”
It took some time for either team to get the bats going. The first hit of the game happened in the top of the third which led to a Sac-fly RBI from Ramsey’s Roberto Cotes for a 1-0 lead. Governor Livingston responded right away with a Sac-fly of their own hit by Zach Geertsma.
The Rams went back in front in the top of the fourth when Connor McNally reached home on a fielder’s choice. While the Highlanders’ defense focused on a 6-6-3 double play, McNally scored easily.
Governor Livingston once again tied things up in the bottom of the fifth when Geertsma hit one to left field bringing in Dominic Labisi. The Mississippi State commit was responsible for both runs and had one of the two hits allowed by pitcher Joe Scarnecchia at that point.
In the very next inning Ramsey took back the lead and went up by two on an RBI bunt from Hudson Ferrando who’d end up reaching home thanks to an Alex DeSimone sac-fly. The Rams were now up 4-2 and time was running out for the Highlanders heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Scarnecchia kept things in control the rest of the way and went on to win it for Ramsey. Not only did they knock off the two time defending champs, the Rams won their second state title in four years.
They couldn’t have won this game or even make it this far without Joe Scarnecchia. In three playoff starts, their ace pitched three complete games, allowed a total of eight hits, and only two earned runs. It was the perfect ending to seal off the year after missing the first half due to injury.
“Joey [Scarnecchia] is a Bulldog,” Ramsey head coach Paul Urbanovich said. “And, you know, it affected, obviously him and we were able to hold ourselves afloat while he was gone, but once he came back, we were a brand new club and he made a name for himself for sure, today.”
While they celebrate winning a championship now, the Rams will look to go back-to-back next season as all pitchers, including Scarnecchia, are expected to return.
