Somerset County Tournament moves into second round, as top four seeds await Wednesday

After Pingry and Franklin won their opening round Somerset County Tournament baseball games last week, they’ll join six other teams in the event’s second round Monday, with winners going on to play one of the top four seeds in Wednesday’s quarterfinals for a trip to the semis at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater.

Here’s a quick glance at all four of Monday afternoon’s matchups. All games start at 4 pm.

(9) Gill St. Bernard’s (9-8) at (8) Bernards (8-9): The Mountaineers swept both meetings with the Knights this year, winning a 9-7 game at home on April 8th, the returning the favor on the road, 3–0, two days later. Bernards has won six straight against Gill, sweeping the season series each of the last three years, but five of the six have been decided by three or fewer runs, one by four. So, Gill has been in them all. In the first this year, Bernards scored twice in the first to break a seven-all tie, getting the final three outs to lock down the win. The seventh was a stellar performance by Casey Hockele, who went 6 1/3 innings and allowed just two hits, striking out six. While overall pitching has been similar, Gill St. Bernard’s has a better hitting team on the whole (.309 team average, compared to .213 for Bernard’s) but when it’s mattered against each other Bernards has come out on top. Call this one a good toss-up. This will be their first meeting in the SCT since 2018, when the Knights won a second round matchup, 4-3. Gill’s last win over the Mountaineers came in 2022, when they swept the regular season series. The winner visits top-seed Ridge in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

(13) Pingry (5-14) at (5) Somerville (9-7): These two played a crossover just nine days ago, which the Pioneers won, 14-2, and they split last year, so these two have generally been competitive. In that game, CJ Banos and Andrew Kessler had monster days. Kessler hit two home runs and drove in five, as did Banos, who also had a home run, while the entire team drew a total of eleven walks. The ‘Ville has won five of its last seven, while the Big Blue are are 5-3 in their last eight after starting the season with eleven straight losses. Pingry has been better at the plate, but the Pioneers may have the pitching advantage in this one. The winner goes to Wednesday’s quarterfinals, where they’ll visit four-seed Rutgers Prep.

(11) Franklin (7-7) at (6) Bridgewater-Raritan (5-13): The defending Somerset County Tournament champions begin defense of their title on a three-game losing streak, falling to Watchung Hills, Scotch Plains-Fanwood and St. Joseph-Metuchen. But they’ve also lost some hard-luck games. They lost their opener in 13 innings on a bloop base hit, and a week later surrendered a four-nothing lead, then lost in eight at Hillsborough, 5-4. In all, they’ve lost six games by two runs or less, and four of those by a single run. Still, they’re a team most teams wouldn’t want to face. Franklin, meanwhile, has had a win-one, lose-one, win-two, lose-two type of season. They’ve never won more than two straight, but also never lost more than two-in-a-row. Bridgewater’s pitching has been there, but the bats have struggled at times to get the clutch hit. Then again, tournament situations sometimes bring the best out in teams. This winner will visit third-seed Watchung Hills in the quarters on Wednesday.

(10) Manville (9-8) at (7) Hillsborough (7-9): The Raiders’ record here could be a little misleading, considering they play in one of the toughest divisions in the state, with two of the best – Ridge and Immaculata – also in this tournament. This will be the first meeting since at least prior to 2008, the first year online records are publicly available. Both teams come in on a bit of a skid, with Hillsborough having lost seven of nine after a 5-1 start, and Manville dropping three straight, their last win coming ten days ago, 6-5 over Sussex Tech. Numbers-wise, the teams are very comparable. The Mustangs are competitive, but lack the sheer numbers of a larger school, like Montgomery, which they hung in with last Wednesday, in a 5-2 loss at TD Bank Park. The winner goes on to play at second-seed Immaculata in the quarterfinal round on Wednesday.