Immaculata and Gill St. Bernard’s have more similarities than you might think.
Though one is squeezed in right along Route 22 at the northern edge of Somerville and the other is nestled up in the Somerset Hills in Gladstone, you’ll see the similarities in how their seasons have played out in 2022.
Both are withing a couple games of .500, with the Knights 15-13, and the Spartans 13-12. They met in late April, with Gill winning 4-2 on the strength of a four-run top of the first, their first an only meeting in the last eleven years. Neither has lost more than three games in a row this season.
But it continues: both had to knock off two higher-seeded teams to get to Friday’s Non-Public North B final, which will be played at 1 pm at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Immaculata had to beat top-seed Rutgers Prep, a tough task in itself against the Somerset County Tournament runner-up, but they did it in such convincing fashion, 11-2 on the Argonauts’ home field with six different players knocking in runs – and none driving in more than two – in a balanced attack.
Gill had to go up to Bergen County to knock off the two-seed, St. Mary of Rutherford, 5-0 on Tuesday.
It all sets up quite the final in North B, with the winner going on to the Non-Public Group B Final Wednesday, against either top-seed Ranney Prep or second-seed Gloucester Catholic, down at Veterans Park in Hamilton, which Central Jersey Sports Radio plans to cover.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with both head coaches ahead of Friday’s Non-Public North B final