This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Raiders Baseball Earns Second Seed in County Tourney

Team prepares to go for county championship.

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood baseball team has won four county crowns and is the defending champion.

However, the Raiders have never won back-to-back titles.

That is one goal the highly-successful squad has on its bulletin board for this 2010 campaign.

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As expected at Monday night's seeding meeting in Clark, Scotch Plains earned the second seed for the 57th annual Union County Tournament, which will commence with six preliminary round games Thursday afternoon.

Scotch Plains was the top seed last year and Westfield the second seed.

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This time Westfield is the top seed and Scotch Plains is the second seed.

Westfield earned the top seed with a 9-3 record. The Blue Devils are the only team in Union County that has not lost to a county opponent. Westfield has lost only to Morris County schools Morris Knolls and Morristown and to Somerset County school Bridgewater-Raritan.

Scotch Plains is 11-4, has won four in a row, and has only lost to Westfield in the county, falling 4-3 at home in Union County Conference-Watchung Division play on April 16. The other Raider losses have been to Bridgewater-Raritan, Edison and Bloomfield - all Group 4 schools from three different counties.

Westfield has won the most county titles with 12 and has reached the championship game the most times with 19 appearances for a record of 12-7 in the final.

For the first time two years ago and last year, Westfield lost back-to-back finals. In 2008, the Blue Devils were defeated by Elizabeth 4-2 in the championship game, with Elizabeth winning for the first time since 1991.

Before that, Westfield won the championship game the previous six times it was in it, including a record four straight from 1994 to 1997 and again in 2002 and 2006.

Before Elizabeth won as the top seed in 2008, no top-seeded team had won the tournament since Westfield in 1995.

Scotch Plains will be out to not only repeat, but prevent Westfield from becoming the third straight top seed to win the tournament after the top seed failed for 12 straight seasons from 1996-2007.

"This is one of our goals and what we come to play for," said Scotch Plains senior left fielder and Rutgers-bound Joe D'Annunzio. "We'll be prepared and let's hope we get some luck."

Scotch Plains solidified its argument for earning the second seed by winning at 12-1 Johnson 11-1 in six innings Saturday, ending an eight-game Crusader winning streak. Cranford earned the third seed because the Cougars own a conference win over Johnson, while the Crusaders of Clark are the fourth seed.

Cranford won the last of its five county championships in 2007 and is the last team to repeat as county champion after the Cougars won their first three titles from 1999 to 2001. Johnson won its only county crown in 1980 and last reached the final in 2002.

"Johnson was 12-1 and our kids wanted to go out and prove that they could still play good baseball and that they're not done yet," Scotch Plains seventh-year head coach Tom Baylock said. "We're ready to defend our county title."

Baylock guided Scotch Plains to the last two of their four county crowns, including the 2004 one in his first season at the helm.

The home and visiting teams for the championship game will be decided by a coin flip. The higher seeds for all of the other games will be the home team.

Five different teams have won the last five tournaments: 2009-Scotch Plains, 2008-Elizabeth, 2007-Cranford, 2006-Westfield, 2005-Roselle Catholic.

57th ANNUAL BASEBALL UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT

SEEDS:

1-Westfield. 2-Scotch Plains. 3-Cranford. 4-Johnson.

5-Gov. Livingston. 6-Roselle Catholic. 7-Union. 8-Elizabeth.

9-Summit. 10-Union Catholic. 11-Linden. 12-Rahway.

13-New Providence. 14-Dayton. 15-Brearley. 16-Roselle Park.

17-Oratory Prep. 18-Plainfield. 19-St. Patrick. 20-St. Mary's, Elizabeth

21-Hillside. 22-Roselle.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

Thursday, April 29, 4 p.m.

22-Roselle at 11-Linden

21-Hillside at 12-Rahway

20-St. Mary's at 13-New Providence

19-St. Patrick at 14-Dayton

18-Plainfield at 15-Brearley

17-Oratory Prep at 16-Roselle Park

FIRST ROUND

Saturday, May 1, 3 p.m.

TOP SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

Hillside/Rahway at 5-Gov. Livingston

St. Mary's/New Providence at 4-Johnson

9-Summit at 8-Elizabeth

Oratory Prep/Roselle Park at 1-Westfield

BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

10-Union Catholic at 7-Union

Plainfield/Brearley at 2-Scotch Plains

11-Linden at 6-Roselle Catholic

St. Patrick/Dayton at 3-Cranford

QUARTERFINALS

Wednesday, May 5, 4 p.m.

At the higher seeds.

SEMIFINALS

Saturday, May 8

At Elizabeth's Williams Field

Top side of the bracket semi, noon

Bottom side of the bracket semi, 3 p.m.

FINAL

Saturday, May 15

At Elizabeth's Williams Field, 1 p.m.

 

SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD'S 4 UCT CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Including scores and pitchers of record in the finals:

2009 - Scotch Plains 2, Westfield 1 (10 inn.)

WP: Gary Binkiewicz. LP: Aiden Scanlon.

2004 - Scotch Plains 3, Roselle Catholic 1

WP: James Scalfaro. LP: Nick Nolan

1976 - Scotch Plains 1, Cranford 0

WP: Eddie Reilly. LP: Jim Carsey.

1969 - Scotch Plains 5, Cranford 2

WP: Dave Klaatava. LP: Dan Costanzo.

Scotch Plains lost in the 1956 championship game and is 4-1 in county finals. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?