Rutgers Prep and Bernards play in a regular season game on April 16, 2022. They’ll rematch Saturday in the Somerset County Tournament’s second round. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
With all three higher seeds winning their opening round games back on Wednesday, the Somerset County Tournament moves to the second round on Saturday with four games, as Rutgers Prep, Pingry, Watchung Hills and Immaculata join the fray.
In the opening round, 12-seed Hillsborough – last in the packed Skyland Conference Delaware Division – picked up just its first win of the year, a 6-3 victory over 13-seed Bound Brook. Cole Jara knocked in half the runs Wednesday with 3 RBI on a 2-for-4 afternoon at the plate; he also had a stolen base.
11-seed Bernards squeaked past 14-seed Manville, winning 3-1 at home on Wednesday, while 10-seed Franklin pounded out 12 runs against 15-seed North Plainfield in a 12-5 home victory despite Dylan Millman being the only batter in the lineup with more than one hit; the Warriors worked out nine walks against Canucks pitching.
Saturday, in the second round, Franklin (4-4) will visit undefeated 7-seed Pingry (6-0) up in Martinsville at 11 am. The winner moves on the the quarterfinals next Saturday, April 30th, at second seed Somerville. The other side of that bracket has Bernards (3-6) at 6-seed Rutgers Prep (6-2) at noon, with the winner travelling next weekend to 3rd-seed Montgomery.
The other half of the SCT bracket has 12-seed Hillsborough (1-5) at 5-seed Watchung Hills (4-6) at 2 pm, with the winner going to visit 4-seed Bridgewater-Raritan next weekend. The other half of that side of the bracket has 9-seed Gill St. Bernard’s (5-4) playing at 8-seed Immaculata (5-4). Both teams had first-round byes, and – due to a scheduling conflict – will play Monday at 4 pm out at Diamond Nation in Flemington. The winner will visit top-seed Ridge next Saturday.
Following the quarterfinals, the semis will be May 9th at 4 and 7 pm at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater, the home of the Somerset Patriots. The finals are two weeks later, May 23 at 7 pm. The semifinals and finals can be heard live exclusively on Central Jersey Sports Radio.