Ramsey Baseball Makes History!

The Ramsey Rams had come into the state finals with one thing in mind: “Make history”. Ramsey has yet to win a baseball state championship for as long as the program has been around. Their crosstown neighbors, Don Bosco had just won their first state title since 2008. Clearly the Rams had felt some pressure to grab a trophy of their own. The opponent Ramsey would be facing is a very good Haddon Heights team fresh off of a huge win over a highly talented Rumson-Fair Haven team.

Going into the game the anticipated pitching matchup would be between 2 left-handed pitchers. The crowd got what they had expected but instead of John DiCostanzo starting for Haddon Heights, coach Eric Newell chose another lefty Drew Costello. The matchup of sophomore southpaws would not disappoint. Coastal Carolina commit Caden Bodine had went yard in the first inning but after that, Will Kirk had settled in. Costello had used his fielders to keep Ramsey at bay in the first two innings. Just as Haddon Heights thought they had all of the momentum heading into the bottom of the third inning after extending their lead, Ramsey was able to put pressure on Heights and throw up 4 unearned runs on the board to take a 4-2 lead.

The Garnets would go quietly in the 5th but Ramsey put up another run for good measure on a fielder’s choice. Will Kirk really buckled down on the mound racking up 6 K’s in the final two innings to complete his game high 13 K’s on the day, including the final out of the game. Ramsey had just made history on the back of sophomore stud pitcher Will Kirk! Kirk wasn’t too concerned with how many strikeouts he had on the mound. His main concern was just to put his team in a position to win. “Pitching with a lead is so much better than pitching from behind. Once I got the lead, I just tried to keep it and cruise through the rest of the game”. Kirk said something during an interview that stood out and really described the team and how they played in the postseason, “The Rams will roll”.