A handful of area teams have begun their high school baseball seasons already, but many will open this weekend and next week.

That includes Spotswood and South Amboy, for whom a beautiful Saturday will be the setting for their Opening Day, 11 am at the place Chargers’ fans affectionately call “The Swamp.”

It will always be known as such, but it may not live up to that name as much anymore, now that their natural grass surface has been replaced with turf, thanks to a Fall 2023 referendum approved by voters.

You can hear Saturday’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio beginning at 10:40 with pregame, and first pitch set for 11 am, with Mike Pavlichko on the call. Click here to listen.

Both teams started last season red hot. Spotswood won its first seven games and was unbeaten through 12 with an 11-0-1 record – there was an 8-8 tie with Marlboro – en route to a 19-4-2 record, while South Amboy won its first eight and ten of its first eleven, finishing 14-5 and going to the GMC Invitational final, where they lost to Carteret.

Of course, since it’s Opening Day, each team will get to throw their ace. For the Governors, it’ll be sophomore Micah Nemeth, the only returning pitcher to throw more than ten innings last season; he went 7-2 with a 1.96 ERA. The Chargers will send out Seton Hall-bound senior Carter Cumiskey, who committed to the Pirates all the way back when he was a freshman. He went 6-2 with a 1.80 ERA.

Both pitchers have great control and rack up the strikeouts when they’re on the mound. Nemeth had 47 strikeouts and 25 walks last season, with Cumsikey even more impressive, fanning 78, while walking just 14.

Cumiskey is also a hammer at the plate, hitting .446 a year ago with six home runs and a team best 30 RBIs, while South Amboy has senior outfielder Jeremy Vasquez back off a season where he hit an unthinkable .596, drove in 19 runs and hit three homers.

Click below to hear both coaches talk about their teams heading into Opening Day, and their Saturday morning matchup to begin the 2025 season: