Bridgewater-Raritan High School is the king of Somerset County baseball—-for the first time since 1996.
Bridgewater-Raritan won its first Somerset County Tournament championship since the spring of 1996 when it defeated Ridge High School, 10-7, on a warm evening of Friday, May 24, at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.
Bridgewater-Raritan lived up to its No. 1 seed by securing the Somerset County Tournament championship. Ridge, seeking its eighth Somerset County Tournament championship, was seeded No. 3.
Since Max Newill became the head baseball coach at Bridgewater-Raritan in 2008, the Panthers had made one previous appearance in the Somerset County final in 2012. Bridgewater-Raritan lost to Hillsborough High School in the 2012 county championship game.
This result signaled the second Somerset County championship for Bridgewater-Raritan, consolidated in 1992. Before the two high schools merged, Bridgewater-Raritan East claimed three county championships (1990, ‘78, and ‘73), and Bridgewater-Raritan West captured one (1988).
The victory over Ridge was the 25th of the season, a Bridgewater-Raritan record. The previous school record was the 23 games that the 2023 team won. Bridgewater-Raritan won its record 24th game on Thursday, May 23, during its victory over Union High School in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state tournament opening round.
