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.