More stuff

Outstanding game tonight in Bridgewater with an outstanding crowd at Prince Rogers Field. Corey Frankosky of Bridgewater-Raritan and Nick McNamara of Somerville were both outstanding on the mound. McNamara, a senior, is an outstanding lefty, losing for the first time after five wins. Frankosky is just a junior.

Bridgewater-Raritan won the game 3-1 as Frankosky pitched a strong 6 2/3 innings. McNamara pitched a complete game, going six innings. McNamara deserved better. He gave up a long home run in the second inning to Rob Pennella, but the Pioneers defense failed him.

One of the players who had committed an error apologized to McNamara after the game and Nick was supportive. Good to see that kind of sportsmanship.

Bridgewater-Raritan played very good defense. Montgomery is the featured team in Monday's print editions. I dubbed Montgomery as a dark horse for the Somerset County Tournament. Maybe I should add Bridgewater-Raritan.

Remember, Union County Tournament seeds will be decided tonight in Clark. Cranford will be No. 1. Elizabeth No. 2. Westfield? The Blue Devils should be third as long as they beat Scotch Plains-Fanwood Monday afternoon. Roselle Park and Governor Livingston should round out the top five.

More later.

In the wee small hours of late Saturday night.....

Kind of strange day at Ridge, but the Red Devils worked hard to get their field in shape. And the Red Devils beat Manville 12-2 in a Somerset County Tournament pre-quarterfinal game. Ridge plays at fourth-seeded Watchung Hills Saturday.

The track was slow and the outfield soggy and it seemed like everything that was hit hard in the air just died.

Manville did have its good cuts against sophomore Kyle Burdi -- junior Anthony Palovick hit two long flyballs to that senior centerfielder Zach O'Connor-Robol chased down.

Over in the Hunterdon/Warren Tournament, Voorhees stopped a seven-game losing streak by beating Belvidere. The Vikings, the eighth seed, will play at No. 1 Phillipsburg Saturday.

Montgomery evened its record at 6-6 by beating Franklin 13-3 to earn a trip to Branchburg Saturday to play unbeaten and second seeded Somerville. That game looks like the most attractive of the four quarterfinal games.

Is there a better left side of the field than Immaculata's third baseman Chaz Crane, shortstop Tom Burke, left fielder Frank Florio and center fielder Matt Marquis?

Somerset County Tournament changes

Saturday's scheduled first-round game between Bridgewater-Raritan and North Plainfield has been moved to Monday at 3:45 at Bridgewater-Raritan. The Pingry at Bernards game has also been moved to Monday, also at 3:45.

Hunterdon/Warren Tournament is on

So, any surprises? Can anybody here derail top-seed Phillipburg or second-seed Hunterdon Central?

Considering Phillipsburg is the defending champion and beat Hunterdon Central 6-3 on opening day, the Stateliners deserved the top seed.

Central is No. 2 and no surprises there. The Red Devils have won 10 straight since losing their first three -- to P'Burg (8-2), Immaculata (8-0) and Randolph (6-3). The Red Devils and Stateliners have a good rivalry here and will see each other again in the regular season on May 8. It would be a surprise if they didn't meet in the Hunterdon/Warren Tournament final May 19 at HealthQuest Park in Raritan Township. Hunterdon Central has won the event eight times, Phillipsburg three.

Fourth-seeded North Hunterdon (4-4) hasn't won since 1999 and should never be discounted. The Lions will open the tournament by playing host to No. 5 Delaware Valley May 5. The Terriers last won in 1994. North should have enough to play Phillipsburg in the semifinals May 19.

North Warren (8-1) is the third seed and will face No. 6 Hackettstown (5-5). North Warren and Hunterdon Central is the county semifinal would be intriguing. Group I North Warren against No. 4 Central in the semifinals. Central has too much offense and pitching to lose.

Voorhees has won the tournament twice (2000, 1995), but the Vikings will be happy to beat Belvidere Saturday and get a trip to Phillipsburg May 5. South Hunterdon is the 10th seed and plays at No. 7 Warren Hills Saturday. Warren Hills won their first Hunterdon/Warren title two years ago and was beaten by Phillipsburg in the final last year. South Hunterdon (0-7) is looking to win its first game. The Eagles won this tournament in 1988 when current coach Toby Jefferis was a standout infielder.

I'm taking Hunterdon Central to win it all.

Hunterdon/Warren official seeds

1. Phillipsburg
2. Hunterdon Central
3. North Warren
4. North Hunterdon
5. Delaware Valley
6. Hackettstown
7. Warren Hills
8. Voorhees
9. Belvidere
10. South Hunterdon

Saturday's games
Belvidere at Voorhees
South Hunterdon at Warren Hills

Tuesday ....afternoon

Can South Plainfield make the Central Jersey Group II tournament? The Tigers started the season at 0-6 for the first time since 2001, but have won three straight. The Tigers beat Perth Amboy 6-0 Tuesday. Quirky note about the Tigers' schedule. Their first six games were on the road and their last three have been at home. I have a feeling South Plainfield will make the states. The cutoff date is May 11 by the way.

Westfield gave up 11 runs -- 11 runs! -- in the bottom of the seventh Monday in a 12-8 loss at Elizabeth. Westfield got beat on a walk-off grand slam. But the Blue Devils never got an out in the inning. The Blue Devils lost to Livingston Tuesday and are now 8-3. But the defending Union County Tournament champions should be in good shape for a high seed when the committee meets Monday night. Maybe a two? Cranford is the likely No. 1 in Union.

Hunterdon/Warren Tournament seedings should be availble Thursday. Here's how I see the seeds.
1. Phillipsburg (beat Hunterdon Central and is the defending champion)
2. Hunterdon Central (has won 10 straight since starting 0-3).
3. North Hunterdon (Lions dominated Voorhees Tuesday and should be a high seed despite a 4-4 record).
4. North Warren (The Patriots are 7-1 and have some impressive wins)
5. Warren Hills (Just 4-8, but have had a very difficult schedule, was beaten in the county final last year and won it two years ago)
6. Delaware Valley (Terriers are 7-4)
7. Hackettstown (beat Delaware Valley in a wild game and could jump the Terriers)
8. Voorhees (1-6. Have lost six straight since beating Warren Hills, but is probably better than its record)
9. Belvidere (2-7. Lost to Phillipsburg Monday)
10. South Hunterdon (0-7 and still looking to get first-year head coach Toby Jefferis his first win).

A different Sunday

Can this Sunday be any different than last week's armageddon type rainstorm? It's beautiful out and apparently it'll be the same tomorrow and Tuesday. That's good for our baseball forces along the Route 78 and 22 corridors.

Some thoughts from Saturday.

Hunterdon Central has won eight straight after losing to Phillipsburg, Immaculata and Randolph to open the season 0-3. We'll have a story on the reason for the turnaround in Monday's Courier News print editions. The Red Devils are scoring a bunch of runs.

Monday is when the Hunterdon/Warren Tournament seeding process begins and right now it looks like defending champion Phillipsburg will have the top seed. The Stateliners beat Easton 10-1 Saturday night in Easton and are now 5-2. The losses have been to Bethlehem Catholic and our own Montgomery Cougars. Hunterdon Central is 8-3 and will most likely be the No. 2 seed.

Franklin has a beautiful new high school and the potential for a wonderful athletic facility in the back of it. The Warriors eliminated Bound Brook 6-1 in a Somerset County preliminary round game. The Crusaders were sloppy on the soggy field and Franklin junior right hander Tim Laverick pitched a solid game and second baseman Frank Russo made a beautiful spear of a line drive that took a hit away.

Funny story. I met Franklin head coach Bill Nickel for the first time after the game and I introduced myself. We spoke for a few minutes. When I got back to the office Bill called us with the results. Our own Jay Sherman took the call and when Jay told Bill that I had covered the game, coach said, "Oh, that's who I was talking to?" I leave such a lasting impression on people.

Bound Brook will play the remainder of its home games this season at Robert Morris School field in South Bound Brook, according to athletic director Rob Nixon. The Nor'easter has left the Crusaders' home field at Billian Park savaged by the flood.

Ridge had a seventh-inning comeback win to beat Warren Hills 7-6. North Plainfield, which has struggled mightily in recent years, is now 6-5 after beating Rutgers Prep in a county tournament prelim game.

Buy the paper Monday and enjoy the great weather -- while it lasts.

more seedlings

The Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting is one of the earliest -- if not THE earliest -- in the state.

The Hunterdon/Warren Tournament cutoff date is this weekend. Coaches have to fax their team's records in by Monday. The Hunterdon/Warren final is actually a week earlier than the Somerset County final. Of course, Hunterdon/Warren has just 10 schools compared to the 16 for Somerset.

Preliminary games for Hunterdon/Warren are next weekend. The championship game is set for HealthQuest Park (Cust Baseball Academy) in Raritan Township on May 18 at 7:15. Phillipsburg is the defending champion. The Liners beat Warren Hills last year. Warren Hills, which won the year before, snapped Hunterdon Central's run of titles from 2001-04.

The Union County Tournament seeding meeting is a week from Monday. Westfield is the defending champion. The Blue Devils beat Roselle Catholic last year. Roselle Catholic won the title the year before.

county news

The Somerset County Tournament preliminary-round game between Bound Brook and Franklin will be played at Franklin High School (the new high school) at 2 p.m. Saturday.

County schedule

Saturday 4-21 (preliminary round)
No. 16 Somerset Vo Tech at No. 9 Pingry
No. 13 Gill St. Bernards at No. 12 Manville
No. 14 Rutgers Prep at No. 11 North Plainfield
No. 15 Franklin at No. 10 Bound Brook
Projected winners: Pingry, Manville, North Plainfield, Bound Brook
Saturday 4-28 (first round)
Pingry-Somerset Tech winner at No. 8 Bernards
Manville-Gill St. Bernards winner at No. 5 Ridge
North Plainfield-Rutgers Prep winner at No. 6 Bridgewater-Raritan
Franklin-Bound Brook winner at No. 7 Montgomery
Projected winners: Bernards, Ridge, Bridgewater-Raritan, Montgomery
May 5 (second round)
Pingry-Somerset Tech-Bernards winner at No. 1 Immaculata
Manville-Gill St. Bernards-Ridge winner at No. 4 Watchung Hills
North Plainfield-Rutgers Prep-Bridgewater-Raritan winner at No. 3 Hillsborough
Franklin-Bound Brook-Montgomery winner at No. 4 Somerville
Projected winners: Immaculata, Ridge, Bridgewater-Raritan, Somerville
Semifinals are scheduled for May 15 at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater at 4 and 7 p.m.
Projected winners: Immaculata, Somerville
Finals are scheduled for May 24th at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater at 7 p.m.
Projected winner: Immaculata

Bound Brook news

Bound Brook coach Steve Bucchignano and the Crusaders have been in a rough spot as the borough continues to dry up from Sunday's monstrous Nor'easter. Bucchignano's team can't play any games until at least Saturday since Bound Brook students are out of school.

Since Billian Park field where the Crusaders play and practice has been flooded, the team has been practicing indoors at the Zone Baseball Academy in Bridgewater. The Crusaders have also received 14 Walmart gift certificates from North Plainfield head coach Larry Cohen and his team to buy baseball equipment lost in the flood. Somerville has offered the Crusaders their home field at White Oak Park to play home games.

"The support we have gotten has been tremendous," Bucchignano said. "We really appreciate the support from coach Cohen, Somerville and the Zone."

Bound Brook may practice Friday at Robert Morris School in South Bound Brook where it played its home games before coming back to Bound Brook this year. The Crusaders received the No. 10 seed in the Somerset County Tournament and will play host to a preliminary round game against No. 15 Franklin Saturday. The Crusaders will probably play at Robert Morris' field at 11 a.m. or may play at Franklin at 2 p.m. We should know by Friday.

The winner of the game will play at seventh-seeded Montgomery April 28.

Somerset County Tournament seeds have arrived

1. Immaculata (5-0)
2. Somerville (7-0)
3. Hillsborough (3-2)
4. Watchung Hills (3-1)
5. Ridge (4-3)
6. B-R (3-3)
7. Montgomery (2-3)
8. Bernards (4-2)
9. Pingry (1-1)
10. Bound Brook (3-4)
11. North Plainfield (4-5)
12. Manville (2-3)
13. Gill ST. Bernards (3-3)
14. Rutgers Prep (1-4)
15. Franklin (0-5)
16. Somerset Tech (2-1)

A cold day at Cust

So, I was wondering what game to cover Tuesday afternoon. Really, there was only one -- Bridgewater-Raritan-Immaculata at the Cust Baseball Academy hard off Route 31. Everybody else is still off because of the Nor'Easter that has crippled several towns in the region. The fields are a mess.

But at Cust, there would be no rain out. Frost, wind and temperatures that made me feel as if it were mid-January, but no rain. I did see a snow squall at one point.

The wind was howling and the temperatures dropped throughout the interesting, but not exactly crisp game won by Immaculata 12-10.

Did I say it was cold?

Some thoughts:

If Bridgewater-Raritan shows the kind of resilence it did in sticking around Tuesday, the Panthers are going to win some games. But the Panthers have to cut down on the errors. They had five Tuesday.

Try, try again: Immaculata senior lefty Jack Rice struggled on the mound, but got through it with six grind-it-out innings. And he also struck out three times before belting a three-run homer in the sixth when the Spartans took a 12-7 lead.

The Spartans had three Division I-bound players in their lineup. Senior catcher Jeff Bland (U.S. Naval Academy), senior left-fielder Frank Florio (Stetson University, Fla.) and junior center fielder Matt Marquis (Vanderbilt).

Bridgewater-Raritan senior center fielder Ryan Zulpa was 3-for-3 and had a walk. He had two run scored, an RBI single and stolen base in the second. He also worked a walk in the seventh. He scored the game's last run.

Immaculata-BR linescore

Bridgewater-Raritan (3-4) 012 -112 -3 -- 10-12-5
Immaculata (5-0) 010 - 425-x -- 12-12-1
2B: BR -- Guida; I--Burke, Piersanti, Morello, Florio; HR: BR--Guida; I--Rice, Piersanti. WP--Rice (1-0); LP--Baum (0-2)

WEDNESDAY!

The Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting is WEDNESDAY night at North Plainfield. I had it wrong in Monday's print editions.

My thoughts go out to my friends in downtown Bound Brook who are wading through another flood. Hope everybody is ok.

Seeds, seeds, seeds

The Somerset County Baseball Tournament will be seeded Wednesday night at North Plainfield High School.

Some folks feel the event would be more intriguing if an all-star team of county players was chosen to play perennial winner Immaculata in a best of three. But that won't happen. The tournament will be seeded.

The Somerset Tournament has always been seeded very early, so there's some trouble really gauging teams, especially with the great weather we've had recently.

One thing everybody will agree on: Immaculata, the defending champion, is 4-0 and is a lock to be seeded No. 1.

No. 2: Some debate. But Somerville deserves it. The Pioneers are 7-0 and there really isn't a question of strength of schedule, common opponents, etc. The Pioneers are a good team with a good pitching staff.

No. 3 is where the challenge begins. Watchung Hills is 2-1, having beaten state Group II defending champion Hanover Park Saturday. Hillsborough is 2-2, having split Saturday's "Diamond Classic." The Raiders beat Hoboken, but lost to John F. Kennedy of Iselin. The Mustangs were beaten later in the day by Immaculata. The Mustangs also knocked off Montgomery with a big rally last week. Montgomery (2-3) also beat Watchung Hills on the road last week.

I'm going to go with Hillsborough at three, Montgomery at four and Watchung Hills at No. 5. Ridge got off to a 3-0 start, lost two in a row, then beat winless South Plainfield Saturday. The Red Devils are 4-2 and could be a six.

Bridgewater-Raritan could jump Ridge for sixth, but let's go on record. The Panthers have won three straight after starting 0-3. No. 7 seed for the Panthers. Bernards lost to Somerville Saturday. The Mountaineers get the eighth seed on the strength of beating North Plainfield. The Canucks should be ninth.

Manville (2-3) beat Bound Brook, and lost a tough one to North Plainfield. The Mustangs could be 10th. Bound Brook is 3-3 with a surprise win over Hackettstown and are 11th in this seed.
Pingry, beaten in the county final last year, is just 1-1. If last year means anything, the Big Blue wouldn't be a preliminary round participant, but there's really nothing to go on. I might be under-estimating them, but let's put them 11th for the moment. Franklin is 0-4 and are 12th with Rutgers Prep 13th and Somerset Tech 14th.

It's a Nor'Easter baby!

Fortunately, we were able to have a full Saturday of baseball games before the expected heavy rains showed up. Now let's see how this rain affects Monday's calender. It's ugly outside.

Bridgewater-Raritan Athletic Director John Maggio suggested to me Saturday morning that the state begin the spring season April 15 and have it run through June 15. Not a bad idea. The argument over the years has been that schools simply have too many activites in the month of June, i.e., proms, dinners, graduations, etc. But classes are usually over with and the kids really have more free time.

I was impressed with Piscataway High sophomore right hander J.R. Seader in Saturday's 8-7 loss to Bridgewater-Raritan. Seader was hurt by poor defense and some good B-R hitting in the first inning when the Panthers scored six runs. But Seader threw just 19 pitches and was on the mound when Tyler Riccio slapped a game-winning, two-out RBI single to center in the bottom of the seventh. Keep an eye on this kid.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood coach Tom Baylock said that the Raiders tried to move their game with Cranford Saturday to Park Middle School because the high school field was unplayable. When they got there, there was a youth soccer tournament going on. "About 800 kids," Baylock said. The non-conference game with Cranford probably won't be made up.

The Somerset County Tournament will be seeded Wednesday night at North Plainfield -- it looks like nearly everybody in the county has played at least four games. Watchung Hills isn't one of them. The Warriors are 2-1.

Late Saturday night games: Dunellen beat Bound Brook 7-5 in the Greater North Plainfield Tournament final at Krausche Field and Immaculata swept John F. Kennedy and Spotswood at the Cust Baseball Academy. We'll have details in Monday's paper.

Diamond classic change

Hillsborough baseball coach Norm Hewitt reported Friday night that since the Raiders' junior varsity field was unplayable that the team's annual "Diamond Classic" Saturday will now only include the host team, Hoboken and John F. Kennedy.

Immaculata, which was scheduled to be the fourth team, will instead play John F. Kennedy at the Cust Baseball Academy in Raritan Township at 5 p.m. followed by a 7:30 game with Spotswood.

Hillsborough will play host to Hoboken at 10:30 a.m. , then play Kennedy at 1 p.m.

Both Hewitt and Immaculata head coach Tom Gambino are desperate to play some games. With a Nor'Easter scheduled to hit the area Sunday, it's likely games on Monday and Tuesday will be off because of poor field conditions. Immaculata and Hillsborough have played only two games so far and the Somerset County Tournament is supposed to be seeded Wednesday.

Spring chaos

This weather drives me insane.

Thursday's an off day for me, but just knowing it rained Wednesday night into Thursday morning was enough of a sign that there wouldn't be much going on in the afternoon -- and baseball had a long list of games.

Just some reflections of the early going -- Somerville is off to a 5-0 start. The Pioneers beat Ridge 3-1 earlier in the week. The Red Devils were 3-0, going into the game. Ridge also lost to Hunterdon Central 4-2 Tuesday.

I had Hunterdon Central ranked No. 2 in our pre-season poll behind Immaculata, but the Red Devils got off to a 0-3 start. Can't kill the Red Devils though they had a difficult early schedule. Consider that Phillipsburg is now 4-0, perennial winner Immaculata (2-0) and an outstanding Randolph team. That was Central's losses. The Red Devils have since won two straight by routing John F. Kennedy 24-3 and Ridge.

South Plainfield is 0-4, losing its last two games to Sayreville and North Brunswick by 5-4 and 3-2 scores.

Westfield sophomore Chris Jenkins is a pitcher to watch. The 6-foot-6 right hander no-hit Kearny for five innings Wednesday and earned his first varsity win. The Blue Devils (4-1) won 2-0 as senior Peter Antonelli got a two-inning save. Jenkins struck out eight and walked two. He threw about 90 pitches.