By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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HADDONFIELD — Last spring, Cole Simon went to a South Jersey championship game as a sophomore at Bishop Eustace, but he was mostly a bystander. That entire season he had just one at-bat, and pitched a mere eight innings over four appearances for a Crusaders team that went 22-7.
Last summer he made the decision to transfer back home to Haddon Heights because he wanted the chance to become an impact player.
Boy, has he ever made an impact. At the plate he’s hitting .435 with 40 hits, 30 RBIs, 28 runs, two homers, nine doubles and five stolen bases. And as a pitcher he’s become the Garnets’ go-to guy, twirling a team-high 44 innings with 55 strikeouts and a 3.50 ERA.
On Friday, in the South Jersey Group 2 championship game against rival Haddonfield, Garnets coach Eric Newell handed Simon the ball, and he delivered a gem. He scattered six hits over five innings, fanned five and allowed just one run as Haddon Heights cruised to an 8-1 victory over the Bulldawgs. The win puts the Garnets into the state Group 2 semifinals where they’ll face last year’s state No. 1 team, Governor Livingston, on Monday at Rutgers University. The winner of that game takes on either West Morris or Ramsey in the state championship game on Sunday, June 14.
Of the final flyout that reliever Jake Dillon induced, Simon said, “I was thinking about the dogpile. That’s all I could think about.
“It feels great. When I first had the thought of coming back here, nothing mattered more than playing with these guys here. These guys are like my family, every single one of them,” he continued. “That’s all I can say. It meant everything that coach Newell had the trust in me that I could go out there and perform, and I trusted that our bats would get the run support.”
“His stuff was working. He gave us a great outing in the second round and we were working off that,” Newell said. “He threw a lot of strikes, and we talked about how when you get in big games you can’t try to do too much and change the game plan. Keep it simple — throw strikes and attack hitters, mix pitches and good things will happen.”
Heights (20-7, 4-4 Colonial Liberty), the No. 2 seed in the tournament, jumped out to an early lead when senior catcher Kevin Clark ripped an RBI double in the top of the first, plating shortstop Ryan Govito, who was hit by a pitch and sacrificed to second by Richard Farruggia. But top-seeded Haddonfield (22-7, 7-1 Colonial Liberty) responded in its half of the first as Jackson Gayer blasted an RBI ground-rule double to center. The fact that the ball hopped over the fence was fortunate for Simon, as he worked out of a second-and-third jam by getting a strikeout.
The Garnets took a 2-1 lead in the second on an RBI groundout by Carter Zetusky, then extended that lead to 3-1 in the third on another RBI double by Clark, who went 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
“We’ve been so close before, we just keep coming every day. We knew we were going to see (Haddonfield) at some point,” Clark said. “This is the game we worked for. This is the game we woke up early for in September, lifting at 7 a.m. every morning. This is the game we worked for and it means everything. I’m so proud of these guys. The coaching staff prepared us, and for the players, when it was showtime we got it done.”
Clark’s big day at the plate came despite getting drilled by foul balls on multiple occasions, including taking one off the throat midway through the game.
“He’s as tough as they come,” Newell said. “He wears that like a badge of honor. He’s just going to keep coming. (Getting banged up with foul balls) I think made him hit better, actually, so we’ll take that.”
From there, it was all Simon and Dillon. Dillon pitched two scoreless innings of relief, allowing just three hits. Simon’s biggest test came in the bottom of the second, when Haddonfield loaded the bases with two outs, but Govito ranged far to his left on a ball ripped up the middle by James Rowe and made an outstanding play to get the Garnets out of a huge pickle.
“I was just trying to get ahead and stay ahead. My strike percentage in my last game was 75 percent outs on first-pitch strikes, so that’s all I was thinking — keep the ball in my spots,” Simon said. “Having the confidence of knowing I was going to have run support was huge. Me being able to just let the ball fly and not really have to think about it too much was great.”
“We just talked about how they didn’t have to do anything differently than they’ve done all year. Just be who we are and do what we do, and we’ll be alright. We talked about finishing the job because we know how good of a team they are. Whether we got up or down, we just had to keep playing,” Newell said. “We know each other really well. They know our guys, we know their guys and we know how good they are, how well prepared they are, how well coached they are. We know it’s going to be a battle every time we play them.”
Once Heights rallied for three runs in the top of the fourth, Haddonfield’s hopes of repeating as sectional champions were all but dashed. The title was the first sectional crown for the Garnets since 2022, and when the final out was made dozens of students hopped over the outfield fence and rushed to join the dogpile.
“Our kids deserve this,” Newell said. “They are second-to-none with their work ethic, they are classy. Win or lose, they do things the right way. I’m just so happy for them that they were able to get this championship because it’s something that will be with them forever.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Haddon Heights at Governor Livingston on Monday for the state Group 2 semifinals, time TBD. Haddonfield’s season is complete.
