Panthers Win It All!

PTHS boys’ baseball team grinds out conference and state championships.

BY RICH LUTTENBERGER

Baseball is a game of statistics, probably more than any other sport. But two things cannot be quantified—grit and chemistry. For the Pequannock Township High School baseball team, this resilience and togetherness led it to a historic season.

But it wasn’t an easy trip. The Panthers had to play 31 games in 68 days. They also overcame deficits in three of their last four tournament games.

Head coach Jon McBurney, who played on Pequannock’s 1992 sectional championship team, points to an early game at Madison where he first noticed the mettle in his boys. Down 7-1 after the first inning on Madison’s senior night, McBurney, in his seventh year as head coach, heard chatter in his dugout; guys saying that they weren’t going to sit back and just give up. He used this moment to coach up his team. “You can’t win the game in the first inning, but you can lose it,” he told them. “Mentally, you can check yourself out, and you’re done.”

The Panthers fought back with five runs in the next inning en route to a 12-10 victory. It was a turning point for the team.

That grit was coupled with great team chemistry, which started with the leadership of the captains, seniors Zach Laubach, Joe Sabbath and John Vanaria. “My captains really led,” McBurney says.

Sabbath was especially effective, pitching to an 11-0 record with 119 strikeouts, which McBurney said was tops in the state. The University of Rhode Island-bound righty was also a key player at shortstop, leading the team in hits (41) and home runs (4).

In winning the Group 1 State Championship, the Panthers (26-5) finished the season ranked 20th in New Jersey, and they also had the most wins in school history. They captured their third group crown and won their conference championship. They were talented and their roster was deep, but toughness and togetherness made the difference.

People say that you can’t measure grit or chemistry. The 2023 Pequannock Township High School baseball team will disagree. For them, it resulted in a trophy and a lifetime of memories.