Beisbol!

It starts April 1. As long as it's not 18 degrees and pouring rain. The way our Aprils have gone, a nice day would be a major surprise.

OK, high school baseball and softball previews runs in Saturday's Varsity sections of the Courier News and Home News and Tribune.

The Trentonian had a great pullout section in Thursday's paper on the Colonial Valley Conference. Great stuff.

Our Top 10 in baseball will run as well. It's just a list, so the blog gives me a chance to talk about what goes into my thinking.

Our No. 1 pre-season team is going to be Somerset County Tournament and Skyland East champ Immaculata, 24-3 last year. I don't know how anybody else can be ranked ahead of the Spartans. Senior Chas Crane moves from third base to short. Crane will be terrific as well in the Spartan outfield. Junior Evan DeLuca in left; senior Matt Marquis in center and senior Frankie DeNick in right. It'll be fun to watch them. The pitching might be better than last year with Johnny Schoberl and DeLuca, who transfers over from Hunterdon Central.

Speaking of Central, I think the Red Devils -- 22-7 last year -- are going to have a another fruitful season. They won the Hunterdon/Warren Tournament last year. There's some concern about the pitching, but they will definitely have the offense with the likes of third baseman Danny Fitzsimmons. Freshman Josh Ake will be shortstop. A freshman playing shortstop at a monstrous school like Central is a very, very impressive thing.

Watchung Hills -- 18-9 a year ago -- has just about everybody back from last year. Of course, they will miss center fielder Jeff D'Annunzio and lefty pitcher Joe Giaimo. The Warriors have a dozen letter winners back, including junior pitchers Travis Zilg, senior catcher Cameron Edwards and senior first baseman Patrick Doyle.

Those will be the top three.

North Hunterdon will be ranked fourth. I think the Lions are going to have a very good year. They were 13-11 last year, but with North Carolina-bound Jason Knapp throwing every few days and a solid team behind him, the Lions should be a strong contender in the North 2 Group IV playoffs. Knapp was 3-3 last year with a 1.99 earned run average with 56 ks.

Hillsborough (20-6) is young and will be starting two or three freshman. Westfield (16-10) has an outstanding pitcher in junior righty Chris Jenkins and senior Justin Olson behind the plate. Olson is going to Rutgers next year. I might flip those two clubs.

Watchung Conference defending co-champion Scotch Plains-Fanwood (19-8) is right behind with Skyland Raritan champ Somerville right behind. Somerville (23-6) has a fine senior center fielder in Eric Fowler and a reliable senior lefty on the mound in Ryan Zamorsky.

I'm taking a risk at ninth and 10th. I'm expecting Bridgewater-Raritan and Ridge -- both 11-14 a season ago -- to be significantly better. Just a feeling on my part.

New Providence, which has a new coach in former Hillside coach Chris Brodeur, will be playing all of its games on the road this year since a new field is being renovated.

God I hate the New York Rangers.....I had to get that out of my system. Hang in there Devils. I heard Ranger fans chanting "You can't beat us,'' tonight during the Rags 3-2 win. The Rags have beaten the Devs seven straight times this year.

But their fans have short memories. Just a few years ago, the Devils had something like a 22-0-1 streak against the Rags. Oh well.