Big games on tap (maybe) heading into last weekend before SCT, GMCT seeding meetings

The baseball season itself is only about at the halfway point, having started in very late March for some teams, and ending in early June for others.

But as far as the regular season goes, the majority of the big games come before the county seeding meetings, which are coming up next week. And that means some big games today and next week, as long as Mother Nature cooperates.

The Somerset County Tournament gets seeded Monday, and who gets the top seed could be up in the air. It’ll likely be between Ridge and Immaculata. The Red Devils lead the Skyland Conference Delaware Division at 12-2 overall, 7-2 in the Delaware. Immaculata is in second, 7-4 overall, 6-3 in the division.

But the division isn’t all Somerset County teams. Of Ridge’s two losses overall, one came to Immaculata and the other to Bridgewater-Raritan. But of Immaculata’s four losses, one was out of conference (to Hun) while the others were to Ridge, Hunterdon Central and North Hunterdon, the last two of whom are not in Somerset County.

Clearly, “other” games matter; the question is how much? The SCT is seeded by the coaches, who vote on the teams, top to bottom, with point values for voting determining how the event is seeded. After the initial vote, teams can appeal to move up, one space at a time. How will the coaches vote?

More importantly, each team has one conference/county game left before Monday’s seeding. Immaculata visits Hillsborough (6-7, 3-6) Thursday, while Ridge is at Hunterdon Central (8-4, 5-4).

If you want to take rankings into consideration, the Red Devils are ranked No. 16 in the latest NJ.com Top 20 – the only CJSR-area team to be ranked – while Immaculata is listed third in the “under consideration” category. In our latest Bellamy & Son Paving baseball rankings, Ridge is No. 1 and Immaculata is No. 2.

Over in the GMC – where the seeding meeting takes place next Friday, May 9th – there’s another interesting scenario among the top two teams in the Red Division. Woodbridge is in first at 10-3 overall, 10-3 in the division. South Plainfield is 11-4, 9-3, a half-game behind the Barrons with a game in hand.

But the Tigers swept the Barrons two games, 7-3 on the 9th, and 1-0 last Tuesday in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio. If they end up tied, the tiebreaker would be head-to-head, going to South Plainfield. But if they end up clearly in second place behind the Barrons, Woodbridge has to get seeded first out of the Red with a better overall division record, despite the two head-to-head losses.

South Plainfield has two division games left. They play East Brunswick today (Thursday) at home at 4 pm, then after White Division matchups against Sayreville and Spotswood, visit St. Joseph-Metuchen next Wednesday at 4. The Tigers lost the first meeting between the teams on April 4th, 14-7.

Woodbridge has just one division game left, this afternoon at home against Monroe at 4:00. A win clinches at least a tie with South Plainfield. Had they swept, they’d have the division outright at 11-2, with one less loss than the Tigers.

The bottom line is that South Plainfield controls its own fate: as long as the Tigers win out, they should be the top seed in the GMC for the second straight season.

We’ll have more analysis on county seeding in the coming days. We’ll have a closer look at Somerset County on Sunday, ahead of Monday evening’s SCT meeting. And next Thursday we’ll have a breakdown of the GMC before Friday morning’s get-together.

Plus, we’ll take another look at the NJSIAA state playoff standings this weekend, with the cutoff just two weeks away on Saturday, May 17th.