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PISCATAWAY — The chance for North Jersey to have its best day ever at the NJSIAA public baseball finals dissolved after Game 3 of 4 at Rutgers' Bainton Field.
Pompton Lakes faced Point Pleasant Beach in the 4 p.m. Group 1 final on June 14, a rematch of the 2024 title game played in Hamilton.
The Cardinals started as quickly as they had in the previous meeting, scoring three times in the top of the first inning. But Point Beach remembered and was ready to counter, tallying five runs in the home first and pulling away for a 10-4 victory.
The Garnet Gulls (20-6) earned their first state championship in baseball. That followed after Old Tappan garnered the Group 3 title in the 10 a.m. game and Ridgewood won Group 4 in the 1 p.m. contest.
Pompton Lakes (22-8) was a much more seasoned team in 2024, and this year's squad had only three seniors. Ryan Miceli, Jon Popovich and Tim Riche nonetheless helped the Cardinals recover from a 1-3 start to capture the program's fifth sectional championship.
"The two who turned out to be our best pitchers [Popovich and Riche] weren't really even pitchers before the year began," Pompton Lakes coach Mike Riordan said. "And they just got better and better and better and learned on the job throughout the season."
Riche (7-3) got the start in the Group 1 final and lasted 3⅔ innings before swapping at shortstop with Popovich, who wound up 8-3 after a North 1, Group 1 final shutout against Waldwick.
The Garnet Gulls manufactured runs against both, underscoring the talent of a lineup led by 11 seniors.
"That's a good-hitting team over there," Riordan said as he motioned to the opposing dugout. "They just put a lot of pressure on us, and that's how it goes sometimes."
Point Pleasant Beach scored double-digit runs in all its state-tournament games save one, a 9-1 victory over Shore in the Central Group 1 sectional final.
As the Garnet Gulls began widening the gap in the group final, the irony of a reversal from the 2024 score – 14-4 Pompton Lakes in 5 innings – became apparent, though it did not materialize.
"I was thinking we could do the same thing they did to us," Point Beach shortstop Antonio Acevedo said. "It would've been nice... but it's great to finally get [a state title]."
The first did much to swing the momentum. Pompton Lakes took its 3-0 lead thanks in part to a leadoff double by Jonah Carbon, who scored on Popovich's RBI single. Miceli and Popovich came home on an errant throw that resulted from Luke Porcelli's grounder.
Point Beach returned the favor with a leadoff single by senior Tommy Conroy, the first of three straight Garnet Gulls to reach base. A Carson Pfeifer RBI infield single, an Acevedo 2-run double and a Thomas Slobiski 2-run single later, the Ocean County side was on its way.
6: Pompton Lakes win streak entering the state final, which gave the team its third 20-win season in four years.
9: Consecutive batters retired by Conroy to end the game. The lefty came on to relieve winning pitcher Bennett Moberg (8-2) and at one point got four straight outs on four pitches.
4: Runs batted in by Acevedo, who finished 3-for-4 and scored twice.
15: Number on the patch worn on the sleeves of Point Beach players in memory of former coach and principal Raymond "Doc" Ellis, who died in August 2025.
"The word to use is resiliency. I mean, they stuck with it and got a few wins under our belts, started to be confident. This is a team that [hitting] gets contagious, and when we get contagious, we're pretty good. ... We lost a little bit of that in the middle of the game, but again, I just can say enough about [Point Beach]. That's a really good Group 1 team over there." —Riordan on his team's bounce-back from a slow start to the spring
"It was just pure heartbreak. I didn't want to feel that again, and I'm just so happy we got the job done. ... I think we had five or six guys returning who played in that game [two years ago], so we all had a chip on our shoulder." —Conroy on reversing the result of the 2024 Group 1 final
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Pompton Lakes NJ endures role reversal in Group 1 state baseball final
Continue reading...
Pompton Lakes faced Point Pleasant Beach in the 4 p.m. Group 1 final on June 14, a rematch of the 2024 title game played in Hamilton.
The Cardinals started as quickly as they had in the previous meeting, scoring three times in the top of the first inning. But Point Beach remembered and was ready to counter, tallying five runs in the home first and pulling away for a 10-4 victory.
The Garnet Gulls (20-6) earned their first state championship in baseball. That followed after Old Tappan garnered the Group 3 title in the 10 a.m. game and Ridgewood won Group 4 in the 1 p.m. contest.
Pompton Lakes (22-8) was a much more seasoned team in 2024, and this year's squad had only three seniors. Ryan Miceli, Jon Popovich and Tim Riche nonetheless helped the Cardinals recover from a 1-3 start to capture the program's fifth sectional championship.
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"The two who turned out to be our best pitchers [Popovich and Riche] weren't really even pitchers before the year began," Pompton Lakes coach Mike Riordan said. "And they just got better and better and better and learned on the job throughout the season."
Riche (7-3) got the start in the Group 1 final and lasted 3⅔ innings before swapping at shortstop with Popovich, who wound up 8-3 after a North 1, Group 1 final shutout against Waldwick.
The Garnet Gulls manufactured runs against both, underscoring the talent of a lineup led by 11 seniors.
"That's a good-hitting team over there," Riordan said as he motioned to the opposing dugout. "They just put a lot of pressure on us, and that's how it goes sometimes."
What it means
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Point Pleasant Beach scored double-digit runs in all its state-tournament games save one, a 9-1 victory over Shore in the Central Group 1 sectional final.
As the Garnet Gulls began widening the gap in the group final, the irony of a reversal from the 2024 score – 14-4 Pompton Lakes in 5 innings – became apparent, though it did not materialize.
"I was thinking we could do the same thing they did to us," Point Beach shortstop Antonio Acevedo said. "It would've been nice... but it's great to finally get [a state title]."
Key inning
The first did much to swing the momentum. Pompton Lakes took its 3-0 lead thanks in part to a leadoff double by Jonah Carbon, who scored on Popovich's RBI single. Miceli and Popovich came home on an errant throw that resulted from Luke Porcelli's grounder.
Point Beach returned the favor with a leadoff single by senior Tommy Conroy, the first of three straight Garnet Gulls to reach base. A Carson Pfeifer RBI infield single, an Acevedo 2-run double and a Thomas Slobiski 2-run single later, the Ocean County side was on its way.
By the numbers
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6: Pompton Lakes win streak entering the state final, which gave the team its third 20-win season in four years.
9: Consecutive batters retired by Conroy to end the game. The lefty came on to relieve winning pitcher Bennett Moberg (8-2) and at one point got four straight outs on four pitches.
4: Runs batted in by Acevedo, who finished 3-for-4 and scored twice.
15: Number on the patch worn on the sleeves of Point Beach players in memory of former coach and principal Raymond "Doc" Ellis, who died in August 2025.
They said it
"The word to use is resiliency. I mean, they stuck with it and got a few wins under our belts, started to be confident. This is a team that [hitting] gets contagious, and when we get contagious, we're pretty good. ... We lost a little bit of that in the middle of the game, but again, I just can say enough about [Point Beach]. That's a really good Group 1 team over there." —Riordan on his team's bounce-back from a slow start to the spring
"It was just pure heartbreak. I didn't want to feel that again, and I'm just so happy we got the job done. ... I think we had five or six guys returning who played in that game [two years ago], so we all had a chip on our shoulder." —Conroy on reversing the result of the 2024 Group 1 final
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Pompton Lakes NJ endures role reversal in Group 1 state baseball final
Continue reading...
