State Playoff Preview: Top-seed Ridge and several other contenders open North 2 sectional action Wednesday

Hard to believe, but it’s already state tournament time in high school baseball.

The county tournaments are (mostly) done – with the GMC still to be decided this coming Saturday after rain throughout Memorial Day weekend – and everyone non-public schools began play on Tuesday afternoon.

Today, we continue a look at each and every matchup involving Central Jersey Sports Radio teams with the 13 qualifiers in three North Jersey, Section 2 sections: Groups 2, 3 and 4. You can catch our Non-Public preview, which dropped Sunday, here. And our preview of the 19 teams in the Central Jersey sections dropped Monday.

NORTH JERSEY, SECTION 2, GROUP 4:

(16) Barringer (5-13) at (1) Ridge (15-9), 4 pm Wednesday: Barringer has lost nine of its last ten games – it’s only win in that stretch being a 1-0 win over Belleville in the first round of the Greater Newark Tournament – while the Red Devils are a Somerset County Tournament semifinalist who went 4-5 in the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, with four of those losses coming to the SCT champion Watchung Hills, and two more to runner-up Immaculata, both of whom are now state-ranked. This one really shouldn’t be close, but that’s why they play the games, of course. Guys like Jake Dolan (.435, 32 RBI) and Kieran Callanan (.406, 16 RBI) are killing it at the plate, but the pitching staff needs to cut down on the runs allowed. These teams have no recent history, having not played at least in the last 15 years.

(12) Plainfield (14-4) at (5) Bridgewater-Raritan (11-16), 4 pm Wednesday: Don’t let the Panthers’ record fool you. They’re in a very tough division, and even now at five games below .500 were good enough to reach the Somerset County Tournament semifinals. Plainfield, meanwhile, started the year 7-0, and has won five of six coming in. They’re hitting .325 as a team, better than BR’s .288, and have a team ERA that’s a little more than a point lower, but the Panthers play a more challenging schedule, which is why they’re seeded as high as five. Bridgewater has the parts to make a run here with still a fairly young squad. These teams also have not met in the last 15 years.

(13) Ferris (8-18) at (4) JP Stevens (17-8), 4:30 pm Wednesday: The Hawks are having a fantastic year, their first time with ten more more wins since 2021. They’ve won six of eight coming into the states, and twice beat a pretty good Carteret team this year with a similar record (17-6). They also swept North Plainfield (now 17-8) to start the year. And they’re led in hitting by two sophomores: Chase Sullivan (.415, 14 RBI) and Collin Casey (.407, 18 RBI), and have gotten some solid pitching from senior ace Soham Prajapati (7-3, 0.92 ERA), who has 89 strikeouts on the year. Ferris, meanwhile, has had an up and down year, only winning back-to-back games once, and that came last week, with wins over Hoboken and McNair. They’re hitting .291 on the year; Stevens is at .344 on the season, with a team ERA of 3.01. Ferris is giving up nearly seven earned runs a game. This is also their first meeting in the last 15 years.

(14) Elizabeth at (3) Watchung Hills, 4 pm Wednesday: This will be the first meeting between the schools since the middle of the last decade, with the Warriors earning wins in 2014 and 2013. But that won’t matter this year. Watchung Hills has two great starting pitchers, including Rob Centamore (6-0, 1.26 ERA), who got the win in the SCT semifinals last Monday over Ridge with a career-high 13 strikeouts, and Lucas Sheehan (6-2, 4.50 ERA), who became the first sophomore to earn a win in the SCT final on Friday when Hills beat top-seed Immaculata, 1-0, for the crown. Jacob Jaconski is the big hitter in the lineup, hitting .458 with 12 RBI, while Rob Centamore delivers the power, with three home runs and 18 RBI. The Minutemen have won two straight heading in, but lost eight in a row before that. The Warriors get the pitching and hitting edge in this one.

(10) Woodbridge (15-10) at (7) Scotch Plains-Fanwood (14-11), 4 pm Wednesday: Here’s another one where the records could be misleading, with Woodbridge playing in the GMC Red Division, the league’s top grouping. And the Barrons went 7-7 with that schedule, rebounding from a 1-5 start to the season to go a solid 14-5 the rest of the way. Gavin Slicner has been an absolute beast for Mike Monaco’s gritty squad, hitting .506 while driving in 29 runs and hitting eight home runs, while stealing 23 bases; the kid does it all. And of the five pitchers who have thrown over 15 innings this year, only one has an ERA over three, and that’s Kevin Arroyo at a highly-respectable 3.11 with a record of 5-2. The Barrons have the hitting and pitching to get this done, and a win would be an upset by seed only. The Raiders won the most recent meeting between the teams, 3-2, two years ago.

(15) Piscataway (11-10) at (2) Bayonne (18-8), 4:30 pm Wednesday: The Chiefs have won five straight heading int the states, most recently a 3-0 decision over Dunellen Friday to win the Ray Cipperly GMC Invitational Tournament. Sumedh Shingala got the start there and could get the ball again here in the first round. Senior Dominick Summonte (.436, 15 RBI) and junior Jason Mann (.432, 20 walks) are the top hitters for the Chiefs going up against a Bees ballclub that won ten of its first eleven games. They’re both hitting in the .280s, but the Bayonne pitchers have been stingy this year, with a team 1.96 earned run average. Whoever gets the ball should present a challenge for Piscataway, going up against a team with a legit shot to win the section.

NORTH JERSEY, SECTION 2, GROUP 3:

(9) Middletown North (14-10) at (8) Colonia (14-9), 3 pm Wednesday: The Patriots beat the Lions last year in the sectional quarterfinals, 5-0, behind a 16-strikeout no-hitter from senior Cory Pascarella. But starter Colin Kroner missed a good chunk of May, including the first round of the GMC Tournament, and the Patriots were eliminated in their opening game. He came back this past Saturday – after nearly three weeks on the shelf – to pitch the final inning of a 6-3 win over Dayton, giving up no hits, walking one and striking out one. How much he’ll be available in the stretch run is probably an inside secret at this point, but if not – or if not yet – they’ll have to piece it together, at least for the first round. And that’ll be a challenge against an offensively-blessed team in Middletown North.

(12) Matawan (9-12-1) at (5) North Plainfield (17-8), 4 pm Wednesday: These teams haven’t played at all in the last decade-and-a-half, so no recent history to go off of here. The Canucks have had a great season under first-year head coach Ben Donaghy, whose 17 wins are the most they’ve had in at least a couple of decades. While they’ve lost three of their last five – a combo of crossovers, the GMC tournament, and some non-conference games, they did win nine straight from mid-April through early May, and are led offensively by seniors Jake Zotollo (.438, 21 RBI, 2 HR) and Victor Ceda (.400, 20 RBI), while senior Bennie Sokolowski (7-0, 0.47 ERA) and junior Ian Lameira (5-1, 2.17 ERA) are the kind of one-two punch this kind of tournament is made for, with every other game a week apart. The Huskies, meanwhile, have given up more runs, and are hitting about 40 points lower that North Plainfield, and are coming off the rare tie, 4-4, last Wednesday at Pemberton in a state tournament tuneup.

(13) JFK (7-18) at (4) South Plainfield (14-11) , 4 pm Wednesday: The Tigers won an earlier matchup this season, back on May 7th, as Dom Massaro led an offensive onslaught, going 4-for-4 and hitting for the cycle with three RBIs in a 14-4 win. South Plainfield is coming off a 7-1 win over Middlesex today (Tuesday) and has a very balanced lineup. Hitting .296 as a team, Massaro is smoking the ball, hitting an unheard of .552 on the year, with 25 RBI and two home runs. For the defending champs – who have a chance to win it every year – we’ll see if the Tigers go with “The Bull,” ace Aiden McCarthy, or hold him to the semis and put big Andrew Bena or Jayden Jiminez in to start. Kennedy, meanwhile, was 5-4 smack dab in the middle of April, but has tumbled since, losing 14 of its last 16 games. Senior Grant Lorentzen (.470, 18 RBI) makes the offense go, and is their ace pitcher (4-4 record, but a 1.76 ERA) and this year achieved the rare milestones of reaching 200 career strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 career hits as a batter – in addition to becoming a 1,000-point scorer in basketball.

(11) Summit (8-15-1) at (6) Carteret (17-6), 4 pm Wednesday: This one could be interesting. Besides having no recent history (last 15 years), the Ramblers bounced back nicely from a late-season two-game skid – falling to Colonia and Edison by a combined 22-1 – with an 11-2 thumping of Rahway back on Friday. Carteret is hitting .318 on the year, led by Gatik Nhardwaj (.424, 14 RBI, 1 HR) and Erick Martinez (.407, 15 RBI), both seniors. Somehow, they’ve used just five pitchers all year. Summit, meanwhile, is a tough one to figure. Though they are seven games below .500, if you take out their 1-11 record in the Union County Conference’s Watchung Division, they are 7-4-1 otherwise. Problem is, they’re giving up about two unearned runs per game, and that won’t win you many.

(10) Somerville (9-16) at (7) Millburn (12-14) , 4 pm Wednesday: The only time these two teams have played in the last 15 years was last season, in the sectional quarterfinals, with the Millers taking a 1-0 win on a three-hitter from then-sophomore Leo Dalton. This year, he’s come back down to earth a bit, with his ERA up from 1.77 to 3.76, with a 2-2 record. As for the Pioneers, they’ve had a rough go the last few weeks, losing six straight after a three-game early-May win streak that included a two-game sweep of Montgomery. Senior Jordan Snow leads the way for The ‘Ville offensively, hitting .370 with ten runs batted in. Both teams are hitting around the same, with similar team ERAs around four, but Somerville has scored just 108 runs in 25 games, while Millburn has scored 148 in 26.

NORTH JERSEY, SECTION 2, GROUP 2:

(11) Bernards (13-10) at (6) Lyndhurst (15-12), 4 pm Wednesday: The most recent meeting between the teams came in 2021, with the Mountaineers taking a 10-4 decision in the North 2, Group 2 first round. A first round Somerset County Tournament win over Bound Brook had given Bernards a six-game win streak, their longest of the year, but they got shutout 3-0 in the second round by Hillsborough, then lost 7-0 to Phillipsburg, and have lost four of five overall heading into this one. The Mountaineers are a light-hitting club at .245, and are led by Sean Arcelay, a junior hitting .327 with seven runs batted in. James Ferrante (.309) leads the team with three home runs. Lyndhurst, meanwhile, has won two straight, and his hitting a solid .318 as a team, led by seniors Tyler Herman (.442, 29 RBI) and Max Gonzalez (.423, 21 RBI, 2 HR), the Golden Bears’ slugging catcher. Herman also is the ace on the mound, at 5-3, with a 1.58 ERA. Expect him in the opener.