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.