With GMCT baseball seeding Friday, how could the top seeds shake out? We take a look

The final week of the season could very well have a lot to say about who gets the top four seeds in the GMC Tournament when the committee meets to draw it all up this coming Friday.

Winning and losing streaks – which also affected this week’s Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten – have jumbled up at least a couple of division races in the Greater Middlesex Conference, most notably the Red.

That’s where a 5-0 week by South Plainfield included three wins over teams that started the week ahead of them in the division, but now are looking up at the in the standings. After a 6-1 win over eventual White Division winner Woodbridge on Monday, the Tigers took a 9-7 home win over then-second place Red Division foe Monroe Tuesday, then swept two games from division leader Old Bridge. They beat the Knights 6-3 on the road Thursday, then came back home and claimed a 5-1 victory.

All that leaves South Plainfield in first by a half-game at 8-2, while Monroe and Old Bridge are 7-3. South doesn’t need any help either, to win the division, if they can sweep a home-and-home from St. Joseph-Metuchen (3-13 overall, 2-6 in the Red). Meanwhile, Monroe and Old Bridge have a home-and-home this week with each other.

Even if the Tigers only take one game from Joe’s, and the Knights sweep Monroe, with both 9-3, South Plainfield has the tiebreaker. If Monroe were to sweep, and both they and the Tigers split, that could get interesting. Monroe and South each won a game against the other this year.

Either way, expect the Red champion to get the top overall seed. Woodbridge has been very good, too, but again, the Tigers won their crossover meeting Monday with the Barrons. And it would be a big jump for Spotswood – undefeated until last week – to get a crack at it either.

But there’s the next interesting scenario: the Blue Division should be decided this week as well. Spotswood and St. Thomas Aquinas are tied for first in the Blue. Both have three games left.

The Chargers play at JFK Monday, the team that handed them their first loss of the season Saturday morning. The Trojans host Piscataway, which they beat 5-4 over the weekend. Then, Spotswood and Aquinas face each other for a home-and-home, Tuesday in North Edison, Thursday at The Swamp.

A tie could get real interesting: both teams’ only GMC loss this year has come to Kennedy.

We think South Plainfield will wrap up the Red Division this week, as it’s unlikely they drop both to St. Joe’s. That would give them the No. 1 seed. So who comes after that?

The real question is: how many Red teams go before Woodbridge and Spotswood/St. Thomas? Old Bridge has been solid, so has Monroe, but they skidded last week, boyh going 1-3. If one sweeps the other, it’s a tough way to head into the seeding meeting.

With the GMCT playing the quarterfinals on at neutral sites (North Brunswick Community Park for the quarters, East Brunswick Magnet’s Ray Cipperly Field for the semis) the only “advantage” to a top four seed is getting to be the “home” team deep in the tournament, but that’s certainly a big plus.

Look, we know the Red Division is a very, very good one. Many in that division put it up against the best in the state. Argue it as you will, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see the top three Red teams get the top three seeds. But could the lesser of Monroe/Old Bridge after this week’s games get bumped to four? Or even five? What if they split?

Woodbridge could very well make a case for the three seed. Could Spotswood or Aquinas make the four? Wins against teams on the board (already seeded) be damned, it would be hard to see the Chargers go below South Brunswick, currently fourth in the Red, even if they sweep North Brunswick this week to get to .500 in the division; Spotswood beat the Vikings 8-7 a week ago in the Autism Awareness Classic.

All we can say is: There’s a lot of baseball to be played.