NJ BASEBALL: South Plainfield bursts through swinging door at top of Top 20
By Bob Behre/For The Star-Ledger
May 10, 2010, 10:44PM
By Bob Behre/For The Star-Ledger
May 10, 2010, 10:44PM
The door at the top of The Star-Ledger Top 20 continues to swing freely, seemingly welcoming all comers.
While the bottom of the Top 20 remains transient, the rest of these elite teams are showing staying power. It's important to note, no team in the Top 10 had played less than 19 games through Sunday, the cutoff for each week's rankings, and none had played less than 20 games through Monday, May 10.
The point is, what you see is mostly what you get with this group. These are very good teams playing very well through six weeks of baseball. Of course, we are entering the exam portion of the schedule, which includes county tournament semifinals and finals in many areas and crunch time in conference title battles.
The NJSIAA tournament seeds will be available Wednesday night and the state tournament opens on Monday, May 17. That's when the fun really begins.
We welcome Top 20 newcomers Wall (17-3), at No. 16, No. 17 North Hunterdon (14-4), No. 18 Montgomery (13-4), No. 19 Indian Hills (16-3) and No. 20 Bishop Eustace (17-4). Departed but not forgotten are No. 13 Morristown, No. 14 Pope John, No. 17 Ramsey, No. 18 Cherokee and No. 20 Red Bank Catholic.
Before this Top 20 hit the streets, it had suffered some damage. Nothing new. Monroe, ranked No. 2, and St. Joseph (Met.), ranked No. 7, both fell in the first round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. Edison knocked off Monroe, 9-3, and North Brunswick beat St. Joseph, 3-0. Go figure.
All eyes turn tomorrow to Toms River South high school for the Ocean County Tournament semifinals. No. 10 Jackson faces Brick Memorial at 4 p.m. Jackson's Bryan Soloman has hit a home run in nine straight games for Jackson. Truly amazing. No. 11 Toms River South faces Toms River East in the other semi at 7 p.m. You know that house will be rocking.
Following me down the rabbit hole and, chances are, we'll come out the other side very different. in seven days.
THE STAR-LEDGER BASEBALL TOP 20
1-South Plainfield (19-1)
2-Monroe (19-2)
3-Don Bosco Prep (18-3)
4-St. Joseph (Mont.) (17-3)
5-Delbarton (18-3)
6-Paramus (19-3)
7-St. Joseph (Met.) (16-5)
8-West Essex (16-3)
9-Randolph (19-3)
10-Jackson (15-4)
11-Toms River South (16-3)
12-Gloucester Catholic (15-4)
13-Immaculata (13-1)
14-Millville (15-3)
15-Steinert (19-4)
16-Wall (17-3)
17-North Hunterdon (14-4)
18-Montgomery (13-4)
19-Indian Hills (16-3)
20-Bishop Eustace (17-4)
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