Highlight matchups on tap all over the area
Between the Mercer County Tournament and some excellent non-league games, there’s still a lot to look forward to in area softball before the post-season even gets started.
Headlining the big remaining regular-seasons collisions is No. 1 Robbinsville at No. 2 Northern Burlington next Friday night. And the following week it will be No. 3 Neshaminy at Northern Burlington on a Thursday night.
While both of those games are more about getting ready for the postseason, it will be interesting to see how they play out. Neshaminy and Northern Burlington have never played each other before and the game between NBC and Robbinsville may also very well be a first.
Those three along with a host of other squads seem capable of launching big postseason runs in another year in which Trentonian area teams seem locked and loaded to make a big impact around the state.
Unfortunately, three of our top five teams (Northern Burlington, Burlington Township and Steinert) are all in the same Central Jersey Group III bracket, but this is nothing new in terms of the locals knocking each other out.
For the record, the cutoff for the New Jersey state tournament is next Thursday on May 10 and the cutoff for the PIAA districts is on May 17.
In the meantime, the cutoff for the MCT is Saturday, which means the record for nearly all the teams in terms of the seeding was completed by Friday night.
Defending champion Robbinsville, of course, will be the top seed and West Windsor North appears to be second at 10-3. From there, Steinert (12-4) will be No. 3 and West Windsor South (125) will go four. Hightstown is 10-5 and has a game against South Brunswick and must win that game to be seeded ahead Notre Dame (12-6) at No. 5.
The MCT quarterfinals are set for Thursday at Ewing’s Armstrong Park. The following week the semis are on May 14 and the championship is on May 16.
The BCSL Tournament
1. Robbinsville
2. Northern Burlington
3. Neshaminy
4. Burlington Township
5. Steinert
6. Rancocas Valley
7. Lenape
8. Cherokee
9. Bordentown
10. Shawnee
11. West Windsor North
12. West Windsor South
13. Notre Dame
14. Delaware Valley
15. Seneca
16. Lawrenceville
17. Truman
18. Bristol
19. Hun
20. Hightstown
21. Pennsbury
22. Council Rock North
23. Nottingham (14-0) (15-2) (15-1) (12-1) (12-4) (9-4) (11-3) (12-5) (11-7) (9-7) (9-3) (12-5) (12-6) (12-2) (5-6) (10-3) (7-6) (13-2) (7-5) (10-5) (5-10) (8-6) (9-6)
championship game is also coming up on Thursday with Rancocas Valley set to take on Northern Burlington after the latter beat Bordentown Friday night.
As mentioned earlier in the year, Northern Burlington’s schedule is incredible. In addition to Robbinsville and Neshaminy, NBC also still has non-league games remaining with Cherokee, Mt. St. Dominic, West Windsor North and Notre Dame.
According to NBC coach Brian Wolverton, the night his team plays Neshaminy it might very well play a state tourney game earlier in the
24. Bensalem
25. Conwell-Egan
26. Ewing
27. Moorestown
28. New Egypt
29. Peddie
30. Cinnaminson
31. Delran
32. Maple Shade
33. Westampton Tech
34. Riverside
35. Allentown
36. Lawrence
37. Hamilton
38. Palmyra
39. Florence
40. Doane Academy
Monday:
Hightstown at Steinert; Cherokee at Northern Burlington; Shawnee at Bordentown; Burlington Township at New Egypt.
Wednesday:
prelims.
Mercer County Tourney quarterfinals; BCSL Tourney championship.
Robbinsville at Northern Burlington. day. That’s also a new one to us, but with the emergence of Amanda Gonzalez as a very solid backup pitcher to Haylei Archer, NBC has the pitching to handle the busy schedule.
Among the results from over the last week were a couple of eye-openers Thursday with West Windsor South’s Taylor Britt blanking Steinert, 1-0, and New Egypt defeating Rancocas Valley. The loss dropped RV into a tie with Northern Burlington atop the Liberty Division standings and those two still have a league game remaining against each other. The Hollies won the first one, 2-1.
Thursday: Friday: HIGHLIGHT GAMES
(5-8) (7-8) (10-6) (4-6) (3-9) (3-7) (10-7) (6-5) (13-5) (9-3) (7-8) (3-11) (4-12) (5-12) (11-6) (4-8) (9-3)
Mercer County Tourney
Although New Egypt is at an all-time low at 3-9, keep in mind it plays a difficult schedule and there’s no reason the Warriors can’t make their usual big charge in Group I if Chloe Lewis is throwing well.
Other results from Thursday were Truman beating Bristol and Neshaminy having the unbridled pleasure of smashing up rival Pennsbury twice in the same year on the run rule.
The Redskins are now just one more win away from capturing yet another SONL title outright and appear in great shape in terms of the district as the current No. 2 seed. As it stood after Thursday’s play, Rock South, Rock North and Truman would also make the 20-team field.