UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT SEEDS

Scotch Plains-Fanwood sophomore center fielder Joey D'Annunzio (top above) and senior catcher James Dinizo (bottom above) will lead No. 4 seed Scotch Plains-Fanwood against No. 13 seed Jonathan Dayton Saturday afternoon in a first round Union County Tournament game.

Thursday
No. 17 Rahway at No. 16 Plainfield winner to play at No. 1 Elizabeth (Saturday). 3 p.m.

No. 9 Linden at No. 8 Governor Livingston (Saturday), 3 p.m.

No. 12 Summit at No. 5 Roselle Catholic (Saturday, 3 p.m.

No. 13 Dayton at No. 4 Scotch Plains-Fanwood (Saturday), 3 p.m.

Thursday
No. 19 Hillside at No. 14 Roselle Park winner to play at No. 3 Cranford (Saturday), 3 p.m.

No. 11 Brearley at No. 6 Union Catholic (Saturday), 3 p.m.

No. 10 Johnson at No. 7 Union (Saturday), 3 p.m.

Thursday
No. 18 Oratory Prep at No. 15 New Providence winner to play at No. 2 Westfield (Saturday), 3 p.m.

Blogs are moving

Starting tomorrow, this blog will be relocated to the new website mycentraljersey.com, which will be a combined site for the Courier News and Home News Tribune.

I am not exactly sure what the link will be yet. I will post it when I know.

Thanks to all the readers who make this blog worthwhile. I hope we can make a smooth transition together.

Bridgewater-Raritan beats Somerville Sunday night

Greg Grande's two-run double in the second inning turned out to be the game-winning hit as Bridgewater-Raritan beat Somerville 4-1 at Prince Rodgers Field, snapping the Pioneers' 10-game winning streak.

The Panthers also handed Somerville senior ace lefty Ryan Zamorsky his first loss of the season. Zamorsky is 5-1. He struck out five, walked three and allowed five hits. He allowed two earned in six innings.

Senior Andrew Priece got the save for Bridgewater-Raitan. Somerville had runners on second and third in the sixth, but Priece struck out Eric Fowler and Chris Venditto to escape.

Since Gill St. Bernards surprised Bridgewater-Raritan in the Somerset County Tournament Saturday, Zamorsky started Sunday night. He will start again Saturday when fourth-seeded Somerville meets No. 13th Gill at White Oak Park in Branchburg.

Somerville (11-2) 010 000 0 - 1-5-2
Bridgewater-Raritan (6-6) 020 101 x - 4-5-3

2B: S--Zamorsky; BR-Grande

WP: Stark (2-0); LP: Zamorsky (5-1)
Save: Priece

Governor Livingston (10-4) lost to St. Rose of Belmar (13-0) Sunday night 4-1 in the Shore Challenge at FirstEnergy Park, home of the Lakewood BlueClaws.

Senior catcher Matt Fullowan singled home GL's run in the top of seventh. St. Rose scored all of its runs in the sixth.

T.J. Hoppe to The College of New Jersey

T.J. Hoppe, one of Immaculata's key leaders in its 23-1 record the past two seasons, will play at The College of New Jersey in the fall.

Hoppe was the Spartans' starting left tackle in 2006 when the Spartans went 12-0, winning a Non Public Group III state title. Hoppe was moved to left guard last season as the team went 11-1, losing to Holy Spirit in the Non-Public Group III title game.

""We moved him to left guard to make use of his trapping and sweep ability,'' Immaculata head coach Pierce Frauenheim said. ""T.J. is one of the best ofensive lineman we've had at Immaculata. He has excellent technqiue along with tremendous explosion.''

Hoppe was the winner of the Immaculata Jack Gardner Memorial Award for loyalty, dedication ad perseverance. He also received the offensive lineman MVP at the Chuck Mound Football Challenge XIII combine in 2007.

Hoppe is a Manville native.

GANNETT BASEBALL TOP 20

1. Don Bosco Prep 11-0

2. Shawnee 6-0

3. Immaculata 7-2

4. Toms River North 9-1

5. Sacred Heart 9-1

6. Morristown Beard 10-0
7. Hanover Park 8-1

8. Seton Hall Prep 8-2

9. Washington Township 10-1

10. Watchung Hills 8-2

11. Lenape 9-1

12. St. Joseph-Montvale 10-2

13. Hunterdon Central 11-2

14. Old Tappan 9-2

15. Toms River South 9-3

16. J.P. Stevens 8-1

17. Jackson Memorial 8-2

18. Bloomfield 11-2

19. Hillsborough 7-4

20. Morris Hills 9-3

Del Val's Nick LaFevre to Clarion

Delaware Valley High School senior and wrestling standout Nick LaFevre has just announced his intention to attend Clarion University in Clarion, Pa.

LaFevre, a Region 5 Tournament champ last season, finished his career as the third winningest wrestler in Del Val history. He finished with a 116-30 record only behind Kris Sigafoos (129 wins) and Dan Kelly (142 wins) on the Del Val list.

LaFevre was a four-time District 17 champion.

LaFevre will major in business.

Tough day for Westfield

Eight runs in the top of the seventh at Union. An improbable rally. Darkness. Game called. Rally wiped out.

That's what happened to Westfield Wednesday afternoon in a 4-hour marathon at Union.

The Blue Devils lost 18-12. Now, Westfield scored eight runs in the top of the seventh to take a 20-18 lead.

But.

With darkness closing in, Union's first batter in the bottom of the seventh walked. Umpires then decided to call the game because of darkness. Thus the game reverts to the end of six, meaning a 18-12 Union win.

Tough to take.

Now here's where there's a twist. Union has lights. Could somebody have put the lights on as darkness closed in? Seems reasonable enough, right?

"I don't blame the umpires,'' said Westfield coach Bobby Brewster, who said he had never seen anything like it in more than 30 years of coaching.

Hunterdon/Warren Tournament seeds

Here are the seedings for the Hunterdon/Warren Baseball Tournament that starts with preliminary round games this Saturday.


No. 9 Belvidere (5-5) at No. 8 Voorhees (1-8-1) this Saturday; winner to play No. 1 and defending champion Hunterdon Central (11-1) Saturday May 3 (2 p.m.)

No. 5 North Warren (8-2) at No. 4 North Hunterdon (7-3) Saturday, May 3 (2 p.m.)

No. 6 Hackettstown (8-2) at No. 3 Phillipsburg (4-4) Saturday, May 3 (2 p.m.)

No. 10 South Hunterdon (2-6) at No. 7 Delaware Valley (5-5) Saturday (2 p.m.)winner to play at No. 2 Warren Hills (8-3) Saturday May 3 (2 p.m.)

Semifinals are scheduled for Saturday May 10 at higher seeded team.

Final will be held 2 p.m. May 17 at HealthQuest. Rain date is Monday May 19 at higher seeded team.

Riddick to play at Notre Dame

Immaculata High School star running back Theo Riddick is expected to announce that he will play at Notre Dame University tomorrow afternoon at a press conference at the Somerville school.
Riddick, who led Immaculata to a 12-0 season and the state Non-Public Group III championship in 2006, was offered more than 10 scholarships, including those from Penn State, Boston College, the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
Riddick will play for Irish head coach Charlie Weis, a 1974 graduate of Middlesex High School, who also coached at Franklin High School for a year.

Somerset County Tournament selections

Can Bridgewater-Raritan get back to Commerce Bank Ballpark and the Somerset County Tournament semifinals?

The Panthers are 3-3 now after beating Scotch Plains-Fanwood 4-3 Saturday afternoon. Bridgewater-Raritan has strong leadership in senior third baseman/right handed pitcher Corey Frankosky (above top picture) and promising newcomers like sophomore shortstop Jon Guida (above bottom picture).

The Panthers play host to No. 13 Gill St. Bernards Saturday at 2 p.m. in a county tournament second round game. Ninth-seed Franklin plays at No. 8 Rutgers Prep; No. 14 Bound Brook plays at No. 6 Ridge and No. 10. Montgomery plays at No. 7 Bernards.

Here's my picks:

Rutgers Prep 9, Franklin 1 (The Argonauts are balanced enough to win this game comfortably. That would give them a trip to top-seed Immaculata in a quarterfinal round game.)
Bridgewater-Raritan 6, Gill St. Bernards 2 (The Knights have shown how strong they are. Consider their 3-2 loss to Bernards a week ago Monday. They shut down Pingry 5-2 Saturday and should stay in another county game with Bridgewater-Raritan. But the Panthers are too strong.)
Ridge 14, Bound Brook 2 (Congratulations to the Crusaders for winning a mercy-rule game at North Plainfield. But Ridge is simply too strong and deep. The Red Devils have balanced offense with shortstop Kyle Edgar, left fielder Mike Thiele and first baseman Pat Smith. Kyle Burdi is the team's ace).
Bernards 4, Montgomery 3 (This should be the best game of the second round. The Mountaineers are very leery of Montgomery. How Montgomery is 1-8. That's the kind of team to be very leery of since the Cougars have a very good history in the county tournament and have played a strong Skyland Delaware schedule. But Bernards has shown resliency and have players like Robbie Steinkopf and other contributors. It'll be close. But I'll go with the upper seed -- barely).

Quarterfinal round
Rutgers Prep at No. 1 Immaculata: Immaculata has simply too much firepower and defense. This could be a mercy-rule game.
Bridgewater-Raritan at No. 4 Somerville: Maybe the best quarterfinal round game. Interesting twist to this game is the fact that the teams play next Sunday night at Prince Rodgers Field in Bridgewater. Will Somerville coach Rick Sabol use ace Ryan Zamorsky in the regular season game? Will Zamorsky work out of the pen? I'm picking Somerville to beat Bridgewater-Raritan in the county game because of Zamorsky.
Ridge at No. 3 Watchung Hills: Watchung Hills beat Ridge 11-1 in an early-season game. This won't be the mercy rule game it was then, but Watchung should win by a few runs.
Bernards at No. 2 Hillsborough: Whenever Raider coach Norm Hewitt says his team is going to be "young and inexperienced,'' opposing teams should beware. There's enough offense, defense and pitching for the Raiders to beat Bernards or Montgomery. Something about Montgomery struggling, though, has me thinking ''danger, danger.''

COUNTY SEMIFINALS
I picked Somerville in our weekly podcast and I'm going to stick with it. I know -- as everybody has reminded me -- I'm going to take a beating from the Immaculata nation, Hillsborough fan base, Watchung Hills contigency, but, you know what? I just like Somerville's pitching. Zamorsky is the best pitcher in the county right now.
I like Watchung Hills over Hillsborough in a county semifinal, Somerville over Immaculata in the semifinal and Somerville to beat Watchung Hills in the final.

There it is. I wrote it.

GILL WINS!

Gill St. Bernards won what it is believed to be its first-ever Somerset County Tournament game. The Knights beat Pingry 5-2.

Andy Williams hit a three-run homer in the fifth to give the Knights a 3-2 lead and John Strony provided an outstanding, 11-strikeout performance. Strony left after hitting a batter to start the seventh. Williams closed it out.

Gill plays at No. 5 Bridgewater-Raritan next Saturday in the SCT second round.

Strony is a Lebanon resident.

Bound Brook, the 14th seed, beat No. 11 North Plainfield 11-0 and plays at No. 6 Ridge Saturday. No. 10 Montgomery, a 10-0 winner over No. 15 Manville, plays at No. 7Bernards.

I didn't make picks for the first round games, but I wouldn't have picked Bound Brook and Gill St. Bernards. Probably not anyway.

GANNETT TOP 20

4-18-08
1. Don Bosco Prep 8-0

2. Shawnee 4-0

3. Immaculata 5-1

4. Toms River North 7-0

5. Seton Hall Prep 7-1

6. Sacred Heart 6-1

7. Toms River South 6-2

8. Bloomfield 7-2

9. Columbia 5-2

10. Washington Township 6-1

11. Millville 6-1

12. Hanover Park 6-0

13. Winslow 5-0

14. West Morris 7-3

15. Old Tappan 6-2

16. Edison 6-2

17. St. Joseph Montvale 6-2

18. Hunterdon Central 7-1

19. Overbrook 7-0

20. Cherry Hill East 4-2

Somerset County Baseball Tournament seeds

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

Saturday preliminary rounds
No. 16 Somerset Tech at No. 9 Franklin
No. 13 Gill St. Bernards at No. 12 Pingry
No. 14 Bound Brook at No. 11 North Plainfield
No. 15 Manville at No. 10 Montgomery

Franklin-Somerset Tech winner will play at 8. Rutgers Prep April 26 -- winner of that game to play No. 1 Immaculata
Pingry-Gill St. Bernards winner will ply at 5. Bridgewater-Raritan April 26 winner to play at 4. Somerville
Bound Brook-North Plainfield winner to play at 6. Ridge april 26 winner to play at 3. Watchung Hills
Manville-Montgomery winner to play 7. Bernards April 26 winner to play 2. Hillsborough.

second round is May 3 at 2 p.m.
Semifinals at Commerce Bank Ballpark May 13 at 4 and 7 p.m.
Finals at Commerce Bank Ballpark May 18 at 7 p.m.

Who didn't win today? (And county seed predictions)

...upset Tuesday....


No, Hillary didn't beat Obama in Pennsylvania...that primary is next week...

Some surprises in Somerset County should make for an interesting tournament seeding meeting at North Plainfield High Wednesday night. (We'll have the real seeds posted here as soon as we can Wednesday night with a podcast to follow).


Bridgewater-Raritan beat Immaculata 9-5 at Cust Academy in Raritan Township.
Hillsborough beat previously unbeaten Watchung Hills 9-8 in eight innings at Hillsborough
North Plainfield knocked off Hackettstown 7-3 on the road.
Franklin won its first game of the season by beating Montgomery 9-2 in a game where both teams were winless.

So? What does it mean for the seeds?

Bridgewater-Raritan and North Plainfield were big winners here. Since Watchung Hills was beaten by Hillsborough, the Warriors will probably fall to third or fourth. Take a look:

Immaculata (4-1). One loss isn't going to matter. The Spartans are the defending champions and should be treated as such. Top seed.

Hillsborough(5-2). It beat previously-unbeaten Watchung Hills. Watchung Hills hasn't played Immaculata. Head-to-head right?

Watchung Hills (6-1) or Somerville (6-1): The Warriors and Somerville could be as high as second, but Hillsborugh's win Tuesday should stand in the way. Somerville plays in the Raritan Division of the Skyland Conference. Watchung Hills in the Delaware East. Somerville's opponents have a composite 23-21 record. Watchung's 20-19-1. Tough call.

I'll go with Watchung third and Somerville fourth -- not by much.

Fifth seed: Bernards (4-2)? Rutgers Prep (7-1)? Bridgewater-Raritan (2-2)?

Bridgewater-Raritan's win over Immaculata should be enough for the fifth seed, considering -- the county is not very deep this year. That's being nice.

Sixth? Bernards (4-2) and Rutgers Prep (7-1) both beat Gill St. Bernards. Don't discount the Argonauts.

Bernards should gain the sixth spot by inch. Rutgers Prep coach Larry Santowasso has some good ammunition. His team has won six straight since losing to Princeton Day.

Prep gets seventh.

Eighth? Ridge is 4-5 with a quality win over Elizabeth and South Plainfield. The Red Devils should get the eighth spot though it is 0-5 against Skyland Conference teams.

North Plainfield is 3-4 after beating Hackettstown Tuesday. Hackettstown is 3-2 with a quality win over Delaware Valley (4-2), which beat North Plainfield 10-3 in the season opener.

North Plainfield ninth. Barely. If Franklin had protected leads of 9-0 and 9-7 in what turned out to be a 10-10 tie against Voorhees last week, I would have felt much better about the Warriors.

Franklin (1-3-1). Its win over Montgomery (0-6) should give the Warriors a ninth or 10th

This is the first time in years since Montgomery has stumbled. Remember, this is a team that lost to Immaculata 7-6 in its opening game. But losing to Franklin should mean the Cougars are headed to a preliminary round game and an 11th seed.

Gill St. Bernards (2-5): The Knights could have really gone a long way in making a point of being in the single digit seeds by beating Bernards Monday. They had a 2-0 lead, going into the bottom of the seventh before the Mountaineers scored three runs to win 3-2. Is Gill St. Bernards better than Montgomery or Franklin? No. 12.

Pingry (0-6). Pingry lost to Montclair Kimberley 7-0. Gill lost to MKA 10-9. What ele is there? A 13th seed?

Somerset Tech (3-2). Is it possible? Yes. Two seeds below the Jags. They beat Bound Brook 3-2 and haven't played Manville. No. 14 for the Jags.

Bound Brook (1-5). The Crusaders have a win. A 15th seed means a possible trip to Franklin Saturday. Bound Brook was eliminated by the Warriors last year in a prelim game.

Manville (0-4). The Mustangs don't play Somerset Tech and their season opening game with Bound Brook was rained out. The two play Wednesday in Manville. The Mustangs get 16 and a probable trip to North Plainfield in a prelim Saturday.

Immaculata time change

Immaculata will play host to Bridgewater-Raritan Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Cust Academy in Raritan Township. The game time has been changed from 3:45.

RIP Mr. Voight

Spoke to North Hunterdon head coach Parker Snare Saturday night about Bob Voight, who died a few days ago.

Mr. Voight was just 52 years old. He was a huge contributor to the North Hunterdon High School and Clinton community.

He will be missed.

Ridge takes big step with two Kyles

Can the Red Devils get into the mix for one of the top Somerset County Tournament seeds? The tournament seedings are Wednesday night at North Plainfield.

Junior righty Kyle Burdi (above bottom) pitched six strong innings and shortstop Kyle Edgar (above top) went 3-for-4 with three RBIs to lead the Red Devils past South Plainfield 5-1 Saturday afternoon. Ridge improved its record to 3-4, but now it needs to find some wins against Skyland Conference/Somerset County opponents.

THe Red Devils have beaten Elizabeth, North Brunswick and South Plainfield, but have lost all four Skyland Conference games they've played. They are scheduled to play A.L. Johnson of Clark Monday, then get another chance to beat a Skyland team when they play at Warren Hills Tuesday afternoon.

Tough start for Montgomery. The Cougars fell to 0-5 with a 4-3 setback to Union. The Cougars are usually one of the higher seeded schools in the county tournament. Where do they fall this year?

Also, Pingry is 0-5, another team that has had recent success going deep into the tournament.

Skyland Conference news

I've written something in Saturday's paper about a couple of Skyland Conference baseball coaches and their feelings about the Skyland Valley teams having to play "up'' against Skyland Raritan teams twice during the regular season.

There is a Skyland Conference athletic director's meeting Wednesday and it appears that it's very likely Valley Division schools won't have to play their bigger cross-divisional foes twice starting next year.

That would open up some spots for non-conference games for the smaller schools like Bound Brook, Manville, South Hunterdon and Belvidere. Softball teams follow the same schedule.

I think it's the best way to go. The smaller schools should get the opportunity to play more schools their own size, but -- at the same time -- get a chance to play bigger schools, which in most years will have better clubs. You're only going to get better if you get samplings of better competition. Though beating teams 19-0, 17-2 isn't going to help either. There's got to be a better balance.

GANNETT TOP 20

THIS WEEK'S GANNETT TOP 20

1. Don Bosco Prep (3-0)

2. Immaculata (4-0)

3. Shawnee (2-0)

4. Toms River North (4-0)

5. Toms River South (4-1)

6. Sacred Heart (3-1)

7. Cherokee (2-1)

8. Bloomfield (3-0)

9. Steinert (4-1)

10. Columbia (1-0)

11. Pequannock (5-0)

12. Nottingham (4-0)

13. Wall (3-1)

14. West Morris (5-0)

15. Wayne Hills (3-0)

16. Seton Hall Prep (1-1)

17. Christian Brothers Academy (3-1)

18. Watchung Hills (5-0)

19. J.P. Stevens (4-0)

20. Westfield (3-0)

Rain -- please stay away

....


Seven days since my last post. Just a few thoughts about the week that was...

Immaculata hit six home runs in a 12-10 win over Phillipsburg at Cust Academy. Chaz Crane and Matt Marquis had two homers apiece. Marquis hit two homers in one inning.

Somerville left hander Ryan Zamorsky pitched a no hitter against Ridge Monday, a 3-0 Pioneer win. Zamorsky is having quite a season. He allowed one hit in six innings in the season-opener at Hackettstown.

North Hunterdon senior righty Jason Knapp has pitched well in both starts against HIllsborough and Warren Hills, but the Lions' bullpen imploded after he left and Knapp didn't get a decision in either game -- a win over Hillsborough and a eight-inning loss to Warren Hills.

Watchung Hills is 5-0. The Warriors have mercy-rule wins over Ridge and Franklin, an 8-0 win over previously-unbeaten Warren Hills Thursday and a 7-2 win over Montgomery.

Montgomery is 0-4. Three of the Cougars' losses have been to strong teams -- Immaculata (4-0), Watchung Hills (5-0) and Hunterdon Central (4-1).

South Hunterdon got its first win of the season at Manville Thursday after opening with losses to Bernards and North Plainfield. South scored six runs in the top of the seventh to win 7-4.

Bridgewater-Raritan got its first win for first-year coach Max Newill, beting Franklin 8-6. Got to feel for Franklin. The Warriors (0-3-1) let a 9-0 lead slip away Thursday in a game that eventually turned into a 10-10 tie that took eight innings. The game was called because of darkness.

"It sure felt like a loss,'' Warrior coach Bill Nickel said.

EL TORO AND GANNETT TOP 20

Immaculata sophomore lefty Jon Torregroza (above) had a great varsity debut Thursday as he five-hit Hunterdon Central, leading the Spartans to a 11-3 win. Torregroza struck out one, and walked just one.

His teammates refer to him as "El Toro.''

THIS WEEK'S GANNETT TOP 20
Pre-season Top 20
1. Don Bosco Prep (1-0)

2. Immaculata (2-0)

3. Seton Hall Prep (1-1)

4. Shawnee (1-0)

5. Colts Neck (1-0)

6. Toms River North (1-0)

7. Toms River South (0-1)

8. Sacred Heart-Vineland (2-0)

9. Cherokee (1-0)

10. Steinert (1-1)

11. Washington Township (1-1)

12. Morris Hills (2-0)

13. Toms River East (0-0)

14. Christian Brothers Academy (1-0)

15. Gloucester Catholic (0-1)

16. Watchung Hills (3-0)

17. Pequannock (2-0)

18. Bishop Eustace (0-1)

19. Westfield (1-0)

20. Cranford (0-1)

As good as advertised...

A good April Fool's Day gag might have been if we actually had a nice day. But -- only three of the scheduled 13 baseball games were played. Many of them were moved to Wednesday.

At Westfield, junior right hander Chris Jenkins shut down defending Union County Tournament champion Cranford 4-1. He pitched a complete game, allowing just two hits, walking three and striking out 12.

"He's legit,'' said longtime Westfield coach Bobby Brewster. "He's going to have his fastball over 95 (miles per hour) as the season goes on. The kid has a great head on his shoulder as well. He said he was going to go home and run. He is really a good student, so you don't have to worry about him in the class. We just told him to make sure to ice that shoulder.''

Jenkins will pitch again Monday against Plainfield, then again the following Monday against rival Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

Brewster said that Jenkins hit between 85 and 93 at times during the game, which took less than two hours to complete. Neither team made an error.

"It was a good high school baseball game,'' Brewster said.