NJ State Tournament Recap through First Round/Picks for the Second Round

It might not be March, but the madness is certainly abundant with the baseball results from Monday's New Jersey High School State Tournament. Out of 64 possible upsets for seeds 13 or lower, 13 actually happened which equates to roughly 20%. That's one huge upset in just about every five games or so. Keep in mind that in past years all these sub .500 teams wouldn't even have made the tournament and this year when they're given the opportunity to, they're wreaking havoc. Here's a summary of the tournament so far in case you missed it or in case you're interested.

• Four Top 20 teams eliminated-Toms River South whose only losses came 2-1 to Brick, 1-0 to Toms River North and 12-2 to Jackson were eliminated as a 2 seed with a 19-3 record to 15th seeded Clearview Regional from Mullica Hill in Gloucester County. Because it is a Group with bigger schools, Clearview had a modest seed with a decent 12-7 record and it isn't as big an upset on paper than at first glance. Clearview's pitcher Shane Taylor who is headed to North Carolina only allowed 4 hits while striking out 6 and giving up 3 walks. He gave up all 3 runs and pitched a complete game to move himself to a 5-2 record. Brett Soloman hit two homeruns and drove in four runs to help spark Clearview over 4th ranked Toms River South.


• While many people think that is a big upset, to me, the biggest upset of the day was Paramus losing to Northern Highlands. Paramus is a school with a decent amount of baseball history and usually has pretty good teams. While Northern Highlands does have a decent schedule, they don't have a schedule near what Paramus has. Paramus has wins over schools still alive in the state tournament such as Pascack Valley and Lakeland as well as their win of the year on opening day over Don Bosco. So to me, for a 21-5 team to lose to a 10-12 team with a weaker schedule is extremely surprising and really opens up North I, Group III. Paramus was ranked 6th in the state.


• Other two teams eliminated in the top 20 were: Steinert(22-5) at #11 and Montgomery(15-7) at #16. Everyone was praising Montgomery for their win in the county championship over Immaculata over the weekend...funny how everything changes so quickly. I'd look for one or two more of the teams in the top 20 to be gone after Friday.


• This has to be noted because if this persists, Newark schools should not be allowed in the tournament. Allow teams in tough conferences with bad records these spots instead of Market Street in Newark and other schools like that. Newark had 6 teams in the state tournament. Here are their results. Hoboken beat Universiy 18-0. Jonathan Dayton beat Newark Arts 18-0. High Tech beat University Charter 9-0. Garfield beat Market Street 19-1. Caldwell beat Science Park 24-1. Shore Regional beat Weequahic 18-1. So in those 6 games, Newark was outscored 106-3. That's embarassing. There's no way around it and if these teams put up games like this for maybe two more years, get them out. It's ridiculous. The surrounding schools didn't fare much better either with teams like Harrison losing 10-0 and Bloomfield Tech losing 16-0 as a 3 seed.


• The Shore Conference has had an impressive showing with a 14, 15 and 16 seed all pulling out upsets. They had over an .800 winning percentage in their state tournament so far and also had several matchups in which two Shore teams played each other, so they were guaranteed to advance. Because many of these seeds are lower, I suspect that they will have a rougher time on Friday and after that it will be interesting to see what happens.


• Millville bounces back after being bounced last year from the state tournament when they fell to Toms River East. They defeat Cherry Hill West 9-0.

Here's how I did Monday. Truth be told, this isn't the basketball tournament and I think through the first round, I already have half the losses I had in the entire basketball tournament lol.

19-10 in Group I games
21-10 in Group II games
23-9 in Group III games
17-15 in Group IV games
80-44 Overall

There's three games today(Thurs.) before states goes into high gear tomorrow. The three today are: Lenape-Toms River East, Bishop Ahr-Monsignor Donovan, and St. John Vianney-Paul VI. Since I'm getting my car back today, I'll probably go to the Bishop Ahr-Monsignor Donovan game and since that game is at 2:30, I'll try to get to the St. John Vianney-Paul VI game in Holmdel afterwards. On Friday, I'll be too busy to post anything because I've been asked to scout CBA-St. Augustine down in Richland so I have a couple hour drive ahead of me. It is also my 21st birthday, so I may head to Atlantic City or something afterwards, so my day will be pretty full. Here are my picks for today's and tomorrow's games. In caps are the teams who I picked as my favorites for each section. Originally there were three, so there may be less now that some teams have been eliminated. In asterisks are the teams I had in my original brackets to advance past this round, so if there's no asterisks, it means I didn't pick the matchup right in the first round and in some cases I missed both teams, such as Emerson Boro vs. Park Ridge and Midland Park vs. Wallington.

North I, Group I
*#1 RIDGEFIELD over #8 Belvidere
#4 Emerson Boro over #5 Park Ridge
#11 Midland Park over #3 Wallington
*#7 SADDLE BROOK over #15 Butler

North II, Group I
*#1 WHIPPANY PARK over #9 New Providence
*#4 LYNDHURST over #12 Hoboken
#11 Jonathan Dayton over #14 Glen Ridge
*#7 Secaucus over #2 High Tech

Central, Group I
*#1 ROBBINSVILLE over #8 South Hunterdon
*#5 SOUTH RIVER over #4 Metuchen
*#6 Bound Brook over #3 Florence
*#2 SOUTH AMBOY over #7 Henry Hudson

South, Group I
*#1 POINT PLEASANT BEACH over #8 Riverside
*#4 NEW EGYPT over #5 Wildwood
*#6 Pennsville over #3 Pitman
*#7 GLOUCESTER CITY over #2 Penns Grove

North I, Group II
*#8 WESTWOOD over #1 North Warren
#5 Dumont over #4 Glen Rock
*#3 INDIAN HILLS over #11 Lenape Valley
*#2 PEQUANNOCK over #7 Ramsey

North II, Group II
*#8 HANOVER PARK over #1 Hackettstown
#5 Bernards over #4 County Prep
*#11 Garfield over #3 Mountain Lakes
*#2 WEST ESSEX over #10 Caldwell

Central, Group II
#8 Summit over #16 Matawan
*#5 RARITAN over #4 Governor Livingston
*#11 Spotswood over #14 Rumson-Fair Haven
#15 Manasquan over #10 Shore Regional

South, Group II
*#1 HADDONFIELD over #8 Woodstown
*#4 BUENA over #12 Overbrook
#6 West Deptford over #3 Audubon
*#2 HADDON TOWNSHIP over #7 Haddon Heights

North I, Group III
#9 Wayne Hills over #16 Northern Highlands
*#12 WAYNE VALLEY over #4 West Milford
#14 Ramapo over #11 Lakeland
#2 Pascack Valley over #10 NV Old Tappan

North II, Group III
*#1 SOUTH PLAINFIELD over #8 W Morris Central
*#4 Nutley over #5 Morristown
*#6 J F KENNEDY, ISELIN over Cranford
*#2 SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD over #7 Millburn

Central, Group III
*#1 OCEAN TWP. over #8 Monmouth Regional
*#12 Hamilton North over #4 Hopewell Valley
*#3 JACKSON LIBERTY over #6 W Windsor North
*#2 WALL over #7 Red Bank Reg.

South, Group III
*#9 SENECA over #1 Highland Regional
*#4 CENTRAL REGIONAL over #5 Moorestown
*#6 BRICK TWP. over #3 Ocean City
*#7 Cumberland over #2 Hammonton

North I, Group IV
*#1 RANDOLPH over #8 North Bergen
#4 Montclair over #12 Morris Knolls
*#3 RIDGEWOOD over #11 Roxbury
*#2 LIVINGSTON over #7 Union City

North II, Group IV
*#8 Woodbridge over #16 Piscataway
#13 Edison over #12 Linden
*#6 HILLSBOROUGH over #3 Westfield
*#2 BRIDGEWATER-RARITAN over #10 Phillipsburg

Central, Group IV
*#1 MONROE over #9 South Brunswick
*#5 JACKSON MEMORIAL over #13 W Windsor South
#6 Manalapan over #3 Rancocas Valley
#7 Howell over #15 Toms River North

South, Group IV
*#1 MILLVILLE over #8 Cherokee
#13 Washington Township over #12 Absegami
#3 Lenape over #11 Toms River East(THURS.)
#15 Clearview Regional over #7 Egg Harbor Twp.

Non-Public North A
#1 IMMACULATA has a bye.
#9 Roselle Catholic over #8 Morris Catholic
#5 Pope John XXIII over #12 Pingry
#4 Delbarton over #13 Paramus Catholic
#3 St. Joe's Montvale over #14 DePaul
#6 SETON HALL PREP over #11 St. Peter's Prep
#10 Bergen Catholic over #7 Queen of Peace
#2 DON BOSCO over #2 Union Catholic

Non-Public South A
#1 ST. JOE'S METUCHEN has a bye.
#8 St. Augustine over #9 Christian Brothers Academy
#5 HOLY SPIRIT over #12 Camden Catholic
#4 Notre Dame has a bye.
#3 Red Bank Catholic has a bye.
#6 Bishop Ahr over #11 Monsignor Donovan(THURS.)
#7 St. John Vianney over #10 Paul VI(THURS.)
#2 BISHOP EUSTACE has a bye.

Non-Public North B
#1 MORRISTOWN-BEARD has a bye.
#9 Eastern Christian over #8 St. Patrick
#12 Newark Academy over #5 Oratory Prep
#4 ST. MARY'S JERSEY CITY has a bye.
#3 Gill St. Bernard's has a bye.
#6 Dwight-Englewood over #11 Montclair Kimberley
#10 HUDSON CATHOLIC over #7 Marist
#2 St. Mary's Rutherford has a bye.

Non-Public South B
#9 St. Joe's Hammonton over #8 Wildwood Catholic
#1-#7 seeds all have byes.

The next round of states is on Tuesday, May 25th. It is the sectional semifinals for public schools and the sectional quarterfinals for the parochial schools. Today, tomorrow as well as next week should continue to be great days for catching baseball games featuring some very good teams and to see who will be the 12 teams who make up the championship field in Toms River 2 weeks from this Saturday.