CRANFORD, NJ – It’s been a week now since North Hunterdon High School sophomore right-hander Chris Sand ended one of the greatest seasons Cranford High School Cougar baseball ever had.
Although the defending champion Cougars, who finished 26-1, fell just one game shy of reaching the North 2, Group 3 sectional state championship game for the third straight year, so much was accomplished by this group.
Cranford won the Union County Conference’s Watchung Division championship outright for the fourth straight season, doing so with a perfect 10-0 record. Cranford did not have the need to play Westfield High School or Governor Livingston High School a second time.
Cranford captured the Union County Tournament championship for the second straight season, becoming the first repeat champion since the Cougars won back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.
Cranford finished 14-0 overall against all Union County competition.
Cranford was 26-0 for the first time and undefeated for the first time entering a sectional semifinal contest.
The Cougars, with senior right-hander Sean Woodruff leading the pitching staff, managed to produce eight victories by shutout. Cranford won two other games yielding only one run.
Although there will be no Group 3 state championship for the first time since the 2013 team, which finished No. 1 in New Jersey, repeated, there is so much to be proud of what this team accomplished.
“I’ve watched these kids since they were 7 and 8 years old and they’re a great group of kids,” Cranford head coach Dennis McCaffery said in closing about his Cranford Cougars. “They are classy, humble and professional in every way.
“They are a credit to the Cranford community. They are very respectful young men who go out of their way to help others less fortunate. It was really something to watch them play and see how they succeeded.”
The team met something unexpected in Cranford’s last game of the season when, for the first time in two years, the Cougars were shut out. If the opposing pitcher is on, sometimes even the best teams can be stopped.
That’s what happened to the No. 2-ranked team in the state last week.
Here’s how it went down at Cranford’s Memorial Field:
It was one thing for Chris Sand to have a game plan.
It was another for Sand to execute it to almost perfection.
It was quite another for the 16-year-old North Hunterdon right-hander to produce it against the defending champions and on their home field.
To send the Cranford Cougars packing took an incredible mound effort by Sand. Why? Because Cranford’s pitcher, Ben Monahan, was almost as good.
Sand, perfect through the first four innings, allowed only five baserunners — two singles and three walks — in tossing a two-hitter to lead the sixth-seeded North Hunterdon Lions past second-seeded and defending champion Cranford 3-0 in the North 2, Group 3 semifinal, played at Memorial Field on Tuesday, May 30.
Cranford was shut out for the first time since falling at Millburn High School 1-0 on Friday, June 11, 2021, in the North 2, Group 3 final. The Cougars scored runs in their next 57 games, including earning a record of 25-5 last year and 26-1 this year. Cranford came into the sectional semifinal averaging eight runs per game for 2023.
The Lions, who finished better than .500 for the first time since 2017, fell at Millburn 7-0 in the sectional final on Friday, June 2. North Hunterdon finished a much-improved season at 18-7.
Cranford vs. Millburn for the North 2, Group 3 title for the third straight season — Millburn won two years ago and Cranford last year — did not take place.
Why?
Because of a mound performance for the ages thrown by Sand, who should be considered one of the top sophomores in the state for someone who is not quite throwing at 90 mph yet.
“We knew Cranford was a team with great hitters, so I wanted to paint the outside corner,” said Sand, who did not allow a baserunner until he walked the first two batters he faced in the fifth inning and who did not yield a hit until there were two outs in the sixth on his 82nd pitch.
In seven complete innings, a 106-pitch effort that included just one real challenge, Sand struck out six — four swinging and two looking — walked three and allowed no runs on just two hits, what turned out to be harmless singles in the sixth and seventh innings.
“My slider was my best pitch,” Sand said. “That pitch gave me the best chance to dominate.”
Sand retired the first 12 batters he faced in a combination of getting Cranford to hit the ball right at his fielders — North Hunterdon was solid in the field and did not make an error — and striking out four, one in the first, one in the second and two in the third. Sand set down the Cougars on just four pitches in the fourth for a paltry pitch count of 42 at that point. It was a ground out to shortstop on the first pitch, a fly out to left on his second and then, after throwing a ball, he retired Shea Grady on a lineout to first. The times Cranford did hit the ball hard, it was right at a North Hunterdon fielder.
The wind was also blowing in, so many of the fly balls hit to the outfield — and some were deep — stayed up and in front of the fences for outfielders to make the catches.
“Chris has been great all year,” said first-year head coach Derek Yocum, a Bethlehem Catholic High School, Bethlehem, Pa., grad who is in his first stint as a head coach. “He has complete trust in his teammates to perform defensively and he’s a real competitor. We all have so much confidence in him.”
“He threw three pitches for strikes, a fastball, changeup and slider,” McCaffery said. “It’s a credit to him and his defense.”
Monahan also went the distance, tossing 96 pitches in a seven-inning effort that saw him allow three runs on eight hits, while striking out one and walking one. North Hunterdon’s final two runs came with two outs.
“Ben did a great job for us,” McCaffery said. “He had a good curveball and, at times, kept them off balance. He was steady and consistent for us all season long.”
North Hunterdon took the lead for good with two runs in the top of the second, after being retired by Monahan one-two-three in the top of the first. After Alex Famolari led off with an opposite field single to right and then Eddie Appollina doubled to left for the game’s only extra-base hit, the Lions were set up with runners on second and third and nobody out. Nick Hernandez followed with what turned out to be the game-winning RBI when he produced a sacrifice fly to right to put North Hunterdon in the lead for good at 1-0. Two batters later, with Appollina on third, two outs and the count 3-1 on Alex Turner, Monahan challenged the No. 8 batter in the North Hunterdon order with a fastball. Turner turned on it and hit the ball up the middle for an RBI-single that made it 2-0.
North Hunterdon’s final insurance run came in the fifth. After Monahan retired the first two batters he faced on his only strikeout and a ground ball to first, leadoff batter Wyatt Demeo singled to center. With Sand up, DeMeo moved to second and then to third after a passed ball and then a wild pitch. On a 3-2 pitch, Sand then hit a hard shot that Cranford third baseman Ryan Jaros almost came up with, but was unable to as Demeo crossed the plate with what turned out to be the game’s final run.
Demeo was 3-for-4, with three singles in his last three at-bats, the last one an infield hit, and one run scored.
A 3-0 lead for Sand, who was throwing a perfect game at the time, seemed insurmountable. This ended up being true, but Cranford had one real solid chance in the bottom of the fifth.
On five pitches, Cranford’s cleanup batter, Dennis McCaffery, was his team’s first baserunner, reaching on Sand’s first of three walks. On a 3-2 count, Sebastian Morales also reached base on Sand’s second walk. With runners on first and second and nobody out, that brought up Sean Riley, who immediately showed bunt.
While Riley tried to bunt the runners over, Sand threw ball one, ball two and then ball three. Taking the next pitch, Sand came back with a strike. That might have been the most important pitch of the game. Ball four would have meant bases loaded and nobody out and who knows if we get the same outcome.
Instead, Sand battled back and was able to strike out Riley on a fastball away that he took and thought was ball four.
“I decided there that I couldn’t give them any more free bases,” Sand said. “That was big. It helped me reset myself.”
“Chris had Cranford off balance,” Yocum said. “The at-bat where he was 3-0 and then came back to strike out the batter showed just what a competitor he is.”
“We were hoping to get the bunt down and then we ended up striking out, which was a big play in the game,” coach McCaffery said.
Still with runners on first and second and now one out, Sand got Ryan Carracino to line out to short and then Brayden Fry to foul out to first. Sand threw 26 pitches in the inning, but it turned out not to affect him in the sixth and seventh.
The rest of the way, Sand allowed a single to short left, fielded by his shortstop, off the bat of Jaros with two outs in the sixth and then, with two outs and nobody on in the seventh, an opposite field single to right by Riley and his third walk of the game to Carracino on a 3-2 pitch.
That brought up Fry as the tying run. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Fry hit a pop up to third that Famolari caught to complete the state tournament shocker.
On Tuesday, May 30, at 4:55 p.m., Cranford’s 26-1 season, which included a second consecutive Union County Tournament championship and a fourth straight Union County Conference-Watchung Division title, came to a too-quick conclusion for the Cougars.
“Give credit to North Hunterdon,” coach McCaffery said. “Their kid pitched a good game and kept us off balance. We had some good swings, but they found their gloves. That’s baseball.”
Of the 26 batters he faced, Sand threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of them.
“The biggest thing for me was first-pitch strikes,” Sand said. “That was important, so I could attack early.“
“We knew Chris had this in him,” Yocum said. “We’re very proud of him and we’re all just excited to be moving on.”
One of Cranford’s 26 wins, its eighth, was on this same field against North Hunterdon on Monday, April 17, a 9-1 Cougar triumph. Monahan pitched the first 5 and 2/3 innings to earn the mound victory, while Sand did not pitch in that regular season contest.
North 2, Group 3 semifinal at Cranford
6-North Hunterdon – 18-6 020 010 0 – 3 8 0
2-Cranford – 26-1 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
WP: Chris Sand. LP: Ben Monahan.
Singles
North Hunterdon – Alex Famolari, Alex Turner, Wyatt Demeo – 3, Chris Sand, Nick Hernandez.
Cranford – Ryan Jaros, Sean Riley.
Doubles
North Hunterdon – Eddie Appollina.
Cranford – None.