Behind Aiden Dill's gem, Delbarton baseball secures fifth straight Morris County title

MONTVILLE - Aiden Dill hit the trifecta and Delbarton secured the five-peat.

Dill, the winning pitcher of record in the last two county championship games, threw his way to a third and final victory, to lift the Green Wave past Chatham, 3-0 in the Morris County Tournament final on Thursday night at Montville High School.

Delbarton, one of the great baseball dynasties in Morris County lore, secured its fifth straight MCT crown and sixth in the last seven years.

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Dill, a Seton Hall commit, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player for a record third straight year. The senior went six innings, giving up two hits and striking out seven before handing the ball over to fellow senior Christian Zebrowski to close the game.

"It feels great. Christian [Zebrowski] and I go back a few years as we've been together for a while now. We love to go out there and just pitch. We trust our defense behind us and that's the best thing," Dill, a left hander said. "The first couple of inning I struggled a bit, but at the end I was trusting my defense and commanding the zone."

Dill was brilliant, retiring the final 11 batters he faced. He surrendered base hits in the second and third innings, but didn't allow a hit the rest of the way. Zebrowski struck out the side in the seventh to earn the save.

"Nobody has ever won three county final games in-a-row. It just showed tonight in some big spots, especially like the fifth inning when he went up the ladder on [Trent] Jenks for a big punch out to end the inning. We all know that Jenks can leave the yard at any point in time," Delbarton coach Bruce Shatel said. "We thought Aiden was the right guy in that spot. For him to do what he did in the sixth where he had a 12 pitch at bat and he threw six strikes on 3-2 counts. He just didn't give in. You just can't teach that."

It was a pitcher's duel between Dill and Chatham ace Wes Maksimow through the first four and a half innings before the Green Wave broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Matt Tafuri led off the inning with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on an error by the catcher. He came around to score when sophomore Sal Garcia hit a fly ball and reached base on an error by the left fielder.

Delbarton added two insurance runs in the sixth when Danny Haggard scored from third on a wild pitch and Tafuri hit an RBI single to plate Miles Handy (2-for-3, one run).

Maksimow went four innings, giving up three hits and three walks with six strikeouts. Jenks was tagged with the loss after entering the game in the fifth. Jenks threw 1 ⅔ innings, surrendering three hits, two earned runs and two walks.

"Five in-a-row is pretty tough to do. Throughout the season I was a little cold and having some confidence issues. Coach Shatel got in my head and he showed me that I'm the best pitcher when I'm out there," Dill said. "The past couple of years we've struggled in the state tournament and we want it really bad. That's our biggest thing right now. We'll celebrate tonight and then focus on the state tournament."

The Green Wave (22-2), the top-ranked team in the latest Morris/Sussex rankings , has won 10 titles since the MCT's inception in 1968. They are the only team to win five straight championships.

"This is a very good team. It's very balanced and we have great senior leadership. We can pitch and we have a great catcher who defends at a high level. We have guys around the field who are high-end players," Shatel said.

"It's a special team. For them to win as many games as they have up to this point is really nice, but they're not done."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Behind Aiden Dill's gem, Delbarton baseball secures fifth straight Morris County title