Baseball: Hunterdon Central captures Group IV title
TOMS RIVER – It was senior first baseman Matt Toke’s and head coach Mike Raymond’s last crack at winning a NJSIAA title, and they were able to bring home the hardware in their last season with the team.
After Matt Toke hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the score at two, catcher Matt Padre drove in two more runs in the fifth inning on a single to give the Hunterdon Central High School team a 4-2 victory over Morristown in the NJSIAA Group IV final on Saturday afternoon.
Junior starting pitcher Peter Woltersdorf pitched 6⅓ sparkling innings, allowing two runs on nine hits, no walks and striking out four to help lead the Red Devils (23-6) to their first NJSIAA title since 2009. Woltersdorf also broke the single-season school record with 11 wins.
With Toke, who closed the game, graduating this month and Raymond taking the athletics director job in the fall, the title was special for the departing Red Devils.
“It was very special to see where these guys have come, I couldn’t be more proud,” Raymond said. “Matt Toke’s been a four-year starter for me and for him to contribute with the homer and close it out, I couldn’t as for anything better.”
Padre came to the plate with men on second and third with one out and the score tied at two in the fifth. The catcher got a pitch over the plate that he could handle from Morristown reliever Matt Lopez and smacked the ball the opposite way to right center.
“I knew he was working fastball, fastball, fastball and I knew he really couldn’t beat me with it,” Padre said. “I was looking for it and as soon as I got it, I swung.”
Toke stepped up to the plate with no outs and a man on first in the fourth inning trailing 2-0 when Lopez offered him a fastball on the outside part of the plate. The lefty Toke took the ball the other way over the left field fence to tie the game at two.
“I just wanted to put the ball in play,” Toke said. “I knew I hit the ball well. At that point, I knew our guys would come together, we weren’t losing this game.”
Woltersdorf tossed 106 pitches and pitched himself into some trouble with 10 three-ball counts, but the right-hander never surrender a walk. After being pulled in the sixth with one out, Toke recorded the last two outs for the save.
“I know he’s a competitor, that’s why he started the game,” Raymond said. “I knew that once we gave him the ball, he would give us an opportunity to win and more than that, he was phenomenal.”
Morristown (17-9) scored two runs in the fourth inning without hitting the ball out of the infield. After a bunt single from David Haberman, Jimmy Nodoro drove in one run on a groundout and Luke Nicolai followed with an RBI infield single.
“Every time, our guys are going to fight,” Morristown coach Ed Collins said. “Our guys weren’t selfish and hit the ball on the ground. That’s buying into our program. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to get done, and I think that’s what that inning was.”
Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice can be reached at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @danny_logiudice.