Ridge catcher Casey Kucerka hits against Immaculata in a game at Diamond Nation in Flemington on April 22, 2026. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting will be held on Tuesday, May, 5. And while the top two seeds appear to be set, where will everyone else go?
To begin with, Immaculata should easily be the top seed. They haven’t lost to a Somerset County school yet, and have one more before the seeding meeting, a Tuesday date at Watchung Hills. A loss there could put an interesting wrinkle into things. But even so, it’ll only be one game.
The seeding procedure goes like this: Coaches rank the teams one through 14, the points are tallied, and then coaches can appeal their seed, one spot at a time, if they wish to do so.
The Spartans swept two from Ridge, and Ridge swept Watchung Hills. Immaculata has to be ahead of the Red Devils by virtue of beating them twice, and Hill should be behind Ridge, which beat them twice. Of course, should Immaculata beat the Warriors, the decision is easy.
Ridge also, at present, is the only Somerset County school to beat a non-county state-ranked baseball team in the NJ.com Top 20: West Morris in their season opener. Immaculata has two wins over state-ranked teams – both were against Ridge last week; Immaculata was No. 12, the Red Devils No. 13 in the NJ.com rankings.
So, we project the top three seeds – in order – to be Immaculata, Ridge, and Watchung Hills, simply based on standings and results at this moment.
Here are the overall and division records for Somerset County schools heading into play on Saturday, April 25. But remember, not every team plays every other Somerset County school. Some, like Manville and Bound Brook, are in a division teams from other counties, like Belvidere, South Hunterdon and Delaware Valley, so they’ve played only a couple of county teams.
We’re also including each team’s records against Somerset County schools, and upcoming county matchups before the seeding meeting on May 5th.
And here are the overall winning percentages of all Somerset County teams, ranked:
Rutgers Prep has the best overall winning percentage of all Somerset County schools, but that might not necessarily translate to them getting a top seed.
The real question, is who will get the fourth seed, which would be guaranteed to host a quarterfinal game. After Immaculata, Ridge and Watchung Hills, will it be a Rutgers Prep, 9-2 overall, 7-2 vs. Somerset County? They have one more Somerset opponent left, on Monday, May 4, at Bridgewater-Raritan. A win there could be a difference-maker.
As for the rest, it’s very difficult to predict what the coaches will do. Since not every county school plays all the others, often overall records and opinions on quality non-conference wins will come into play. But each coach votes his own opinion without much discussion among the others.
Typically, larger schools tend to get a little more preference toward the top, especially considering the bilstering schedule in the Delaware Division. So, it’s possible a Hillsborough or Bridgewater-Raritan could be seeded higher than a 7-8 Montgomery squad, or even Somerville at 6-6.
Only the coaches know how they’ll vote, and there’s still a lot of baseball to be played between now and then.
The Somerset County Tournament opens on Friday, May 8. Here’s the schedule:
- First Round: Friday, May 8 at higher seeds
- Second Round: Monday, May 11 at higher seeds
- Quarterfinals: Thursday, May 14 at higher seeds
- Semifinals: Monday, May 18 at TD Bank Park, Bridgewater – 1 and 4 pm
- Finals: Wednesday, May 20 at TD Bank Park, Bridgewater – 6 pm
Note: If the semifinals get rained out, they will be moved to Wednesday, May 20, with the finals taking place on Friday, May 22. If the semifinals go on as scheduled, but the finals are rained out, it’ll move to Friday, May 22.
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