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BCCA Baseball: Quarterfinal schedule

The quarterfinal round schedule for next Saturday, May 24:

AT EMERSON

11:00 a.m. - (5) Lyndhurst vs. (4) Ramapo

  1:30 p.m. - (8) New Milford vs. (1) Don Bosco

AT DEMAREST

12:00 p.m. - (22) Paramus vs. (3) Old Tappan

  2:30 p.m. - (7) Ramsey vs. (2) Old Tappan

BCCA Baseball: After further review....

With a little help from the weatherman, a last-minute friendly AD and some superior groundskeeping, the Round of 16 in the Bergen County baseball tournament is in the books. 

I was in Demarest for the three games, and you can read the story in Sunday's edition of The Record.  Check out below for some further insights on the trio of contests.

But first, here's today's results:

State thoughts

BOYS TENNIS

When I was looking for a State sectional final to attend Monday I inadvertently may have found a way to get to see part of three of the six finals involving North Jersey teams that is still friendly on the gas tank.

Speaking of which, I'll have to fill up on the way home tonight. There goes another $43.50.

But back to the tennis.

Down to Two in Bergen; Passaic County Final Set

Over at Main Memorial, West Milford pounds Lakeland, 11-0 in five innings, Caity Sacco with a no-no. Hawthorne Upsets Pompton Lakes, 2-0 (first loss of the year for Cardinals).... Also, bonus score, Mount St. Dominic's 7-0 over Cedar Grove to win the Essex County title.

The Bergen County semifinals are in the books, and what can I say? I called it. Ramapo vs. Saddle Brook. Oh wait. That was my prediction for 2007. Oh well.

But two great games today at IHA, yes, IHA. The field conditions at Ramapo College weren't good, and guess what? Its official, if the field at Ramapo College is not playable tomorrow. The county final will be at IHA tomorrow at 2 p.m. When I know for sure tomorrow morning, I will let you know. Also, the weather forecast tomorrow is not good.

You know, Saddle Brook and Ramapo have not played in over a decade at least. One way or the other history will be made because either Ramapo will be the first team to ever win 3 straight Bergen County titles, or Saddle Brook will be the first Group 1 school to win a county title.

Highlands tops Ramapo

BOYS TENNIS

Since there was no room in Friday's paper and since it apparently hasn't shown up on northjersey.com, here is the story I wrote on Northern Highlands upsetting Ramapo on Thursday. I also included a little on Englewood's upset of Tenafly.

Keep in mind these are unedited, so forgive me if they aren't up to The Record standards.

Softball: Bergen County tournament (updated)

Game 1 of the Bergen County semifinals is in the books, and it's been a good day for Saddle Brook.

The Falcons beat Ridgewood 3-1 and will play the winner of Ramapo/IHA  in tomorrow's final. Darren is at the tournament, which was moved to IHA this morning because of poor field conditions at Ramapo College, and is keeping me posted on the Ramapo/IHA game, which is being contested right now.

You can check back here throughout the afternoon for more updates.

UPDATE:Darren informs me that they've reached the top of the ninth at IHA, where Ramapo and IHA are tied at 0. More to come as soon as I know it.

UPDATE:Ramapo's bid for three consecutive Bergen County tournament titles is still alive. The Green Raiders defeated IHA 1-0, and advance to play Saddle Brook in tomorrow's title game. Brittany Baiunco came to play. She pitched a 2-hitter with 19 strikeouts.

Sunday's title game is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Ramapo College.

I'll be at the Passaic County tournament this evening in Clifton. Hope to see you there!

BASEBALL CHANGES

All that heavy rain last night took it's toll. The field at Emerson has huge puddles in the infield and you need a boat to get through the front of the dugout, so there's been some shuffling. Here is the revised sked:

At Northern Highlands

Dumont-Paramus, 11

Lyndhurst-Elmwood Park, 1:30

Cresskill-Ramapo, 4

At Demarest

Ramsey-River DEll, 12

St. Joseph-Indian Hills, 2:30

Don Bosco-Rutherford, 4:30

At Old Tappan

Old Tappan-Teaneck, 3:30

At Hasbrouck Heights

Westwood-New Milford, 1:30

As far as we know, the games at Highlands got off on time. They are working on the Demarest field, and it will be playable. Heights has turf so that's no problem, and OT will be fine by this afternoon.

Bergen Softball Semifinals Moved

The Bergen County softball semifinals have been moved to IHA because of (still) wet conditions at Ramapo College. The field is playable, but not good enough according to Darren White, tournament director.

Times are still the same, 1 p.m. (Saddle Brook-Ridgewood) and 3 p.m. (IHA-Ramapo). Wow, IHA finally gets to play Ramapo at home.

Plans are still to have the final at Ramapo College Sunday at 2 p.m.

What happens now?

The Bergen County softball tournament is all set to play tomorrow at Ramapo College, 1 and 3 p.m. If, however, the field there is unplayable, they will switch the games to IHA. We should know officially by 10 a.m. tomorrow. You can check here for updates.

If it's just another terrible rainy day, Bergen will move its semifinals to Sunday at Ramapo College and the final will be at Saddle Brook on Saturday the 24th.

What else do you need to know? Plenty.

Baseball: Good one washed out

One look out the window is all the reporting you need to know that today's baseball slate is a wash out. Unfortunately, that means New Milford won't play at Cresskill in a key BCSL Olympic game.

Here are the updated standings for the top of the Olympic:

Cresskill 12-2 (14-5 overall)

New Milford 11-3 (18-4 overall)

Park Ridge 10-3 (12-8 overall)

Passaic County Softball postponed

The Passaic County softball tournament semifinals have been postponed because of inclement weather.

The semifinals will be Saturday, same times, 6:45 (West Milford vs. Lakeland) and 9 p.m. (Pompton Lakes vs. Hawthorne).

The final will be Sunday at 3 p.m. All games will be at Main Memorial Field in Clifton. The Bergen County final at Ramapo College is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.

BCCA baseball: Schedule changes

We just received the following schedule changes from Bergen County baseball tournament director Bob Carcich for Saturday's Round of 16:

AT EMERSON

11:00 a.m. - Westwood (9) vs. New Milford (8)

  1:30 p.m. - Rutherford (17) vs. Don Bosco (1)

  4:00 p.m. - Cresskill (20) vs. Ramapo (4)

AT DEMAREST

12:00 p.m. - River Dell (10) vs. Ramsey (7)

  2:30 p.m. - Indian Hills (15) vs. St. Joseph (2)

AT OLD TAPPAN

  3:30 p.m. - Teaneck (14) vs. Old Tappan (3)

AT NORTHERN HIGHLANDS

10:00 a.m. - Paramus (22) vs. Dumont (6)

12:30 p.m. - Elmwood Park (21) vs. Lyndhurst (5)

The changes were due to a conflict with the Bergen County track championships at Old Tappan, as the javelin throwers use the baseball outfield and the competition would not be completed in time to have two games there.

Ridgewood's Donovan honored

Ridgewood senior Liz Donovan has been selected as an All-American by Inside Lacrosse magazine. Amazingly, Donovan's selection marks the first time a Ridgewood player has been named as an All-American. She will attend Boston College in the fall.

The Ridgewood defender was one of 44 players selected by a committee put together by Inside Lacrosse. She will compete in an All-Star Game on July 12 in Baltimore. The players will be split into two teams for a North vs. South game. The official announcement of the full team is expected sometime next week.

Baseball: Non-public brackets

OK, the NJSIAA got the non-public state brackets much quicker than I gave them credit for possibly doing. You can check those out here. So sooner had I finished typing the last blog entry on the public brackets that the non-publics popped up.

Click below for the highlights of the Non-Public North A and North B brackets. For North A, the first round is May 23, the quarterfinals will be May 27, the semifinals on May 30 and the sectional final is June 3. For North B, which has just six teams entered, the quarterfinals will be May 27, the semifinals on May 30 and the sectional final June 3.

Baseball: Public brackets

The brackets for the State tournaments have been posted here, a lot earlier than we had been led to believe they would be up today. The non-publics are not yet up but presumably will be today, perhaps closer to the 6 p.m. slot we thought that everything would be released (not that we're complaining, in fact, this is great, guys).

We'll have the full schedule in tomorrow's Record and probably posted in the blog later. For now, here are some highlights from North I and North II, Groups I-IV. The schedule for the brackets is: First round, Monday; quarterfinals, May 23; semifinals, May 27; sectional finals, May 30.

Mahwah wins NBIL golf title

Mahwah lived up to its No. 1 ranking in The Record Top 15 by winning the NBIL Golf Championship this afternoon at Darlington Golf Course in Mahwah.

Jack Isler was individual runner-up with 1-over-par 73 and Mahwah carded a shoot-six, count-four score of 305 to finish eight shots ahead of Ramapo and 16 better than Ramsey.

Northern Highlands sophomore Greg Schmaus was individual champ with 71 and there will be a story in Friday's Record, and you can click below for all individual and team scores:

Baseball: Bergen Tourney update

So here are the scores from today's eight play-in games.

No. 9 Westwood 6, No. 24 Bergen Catholic 3

No. 10 River Dell 4, No. 23 Park Ridge 1

No. 22 Paramus 1, No. 11 Becton 0

No. 21 Elmwood Park 1, No. 12 Ridgefield 0

No. 20 Cresskill 6, No. 13 St. Mary 5

No. 14 Teaneck 9, No. 19 Tenafly 3

No. 15 Indian Hills 7, No. 18 Waldwick 0

No. 17 Rutherford 10, No. 16 Lodi 0

Now click below for the updated schedule...

Bergen Catholic qualifies for State Golf Championships

Bergen Catholic is in the State Golf Championships and Don Bosco is out.

BC earned runner-up at today's North Non-Public A sectional - and the right to advance to Mondays 74th State Championship - by winning a one-hole playoff against Bosco at Mercer Oaks in West Windsor.

BC and Bosco tied with a shoot-five, count-four score of 325 and you can read about their playoff in Thursdays's Record. Click below for complete team and individual scores from all four of today's non-public sectionals.

Girls Lacrosse Statistics as of May 14

Although the cooperation by the coaches has been minimal, here are updated statistics for girls lacrosse. All of the credit goes to Jim McConville, who is tireless in his quest to find and record every goal, assist and save that is made on a North Jersey lacrosse field. All I did was type in the information.

If anyone is missing and belongs on these lists, please have your team's coach e-mail Tim Leonard at Leonard@northjersey.com. Sorry, but we cannot accept e-mails from parents or boosters, unless that person has been designated by the coach to send statistics and the coach contacts us to confirm.

Boys Lax Top 10 & Stats

Spring is in full bloom. The playoffs are just around the corner. Injuries from preseason have healed. The hard work in practice must be put into action. Every team is trying to peak now. It's win or go home. Time to separate the great teams from the good. Here we go...one more week till playoff time.

Bergen County Baseball: 24 teams in

The Bergen County baseball tournament, with a record field of 24 teams, seeded its 50^th annual event on Monday night, and the top portion looks a lot like last year’s ranking, as Don Bosco, St. Joseph and Old Tappan are once again 1-2-3.

The two-time defending champion Ironmen will try to become the first school to three-peat, and they are the odds-on favorite to do just that.  While there may not appear to be much resistance in the way for Bosco, don’t tell the other 23 teams that they’re playing for second place. 

Bergen County Baseball Seedings

Bergen County BASEBALl

First Round

WEDNESDAY

(24) Bergen Catholic (9) Westwood, 4

(23) Park Ridge at (10) River Dell, 4

(22) Paramus at (11) Becton, 4

(21) Elmwood Park at (12) Ridgefield, 4

(20) Cresskill at (13) St. Mary, 4

(19) Tenafly at (14) Teaneck, 4

(18) Waldwick at (15) Indian Hills, 4

(17) Rutherford at (16) Lodi, 4

ROUND OF 16

Saturday, MAY 17

AT EMERSON HIGH SCHOOL

w/o Bergen Catholic/Westwood vs. (8) New Milford, 11 a.m.

w/o Rutherford/Lodi vs. (1) Don Bosco, 1:30

AT DEMAREST HIGH SCHOOL

w/o Park Ridge/River Dell vs. (7) Ramsey, noon

w/o Waldwick/Indian Hills vs. (2) St. Joseph, 2:30 p.m.

AT OLD TAPPAN HIGH SCHOOL

w/o Tenafly/Teaneck vs. (3) Old Tappan, 1:30 p.m.

w/o Paramus/Becton vs. (6), Dumont 4

AT NORTHERN HIGHLANDS HIGH SCHOOL

w/o Cresskill/St. Mary vs. (4) Ramapo, 10 a.m.

w/o Elmwood Park/Ridgefield vs. (5) Lyndhurst, 12:30 p.m.   

QUARTERFINALS

Saturday, MAY 24

At Emerson, 11 and 1:30 p.m.

At Demarest, 12 and 2:30 p.m.

SEMIFINALS

Saturday, MAY 31

AT DEMAREST H.S.

1 and 3:30 p.m.

FINAL

SUNDAY, JUNE 1

AT DEMAREST H.S.

Championship game, 2 p.m.

All That...And a Bag of Fries

Photo by Tariq Zehawi of The Record. There's Pascack Valley pitcher Brittany DeMaio in the Indians Bergen County Tournament quarterfinal game with Ridgewood.

I haven't tried to overlook DeMaio, as has been suggested, I have seen her pitch twice, both times, she was good, but she was on the losing side of the score, so I never really focused on her. Still, PV, gonna be a dangerous team in the states. They can beat anyone, they ran into a Ridgewood team that played its best game Saturday.

I have news on rainouts, where the Bergen semis and final will be (officially) below. And who I really have overlooked this spring.

Varsity Aces Honors and McGill Award

The Athlete of the Week dinner will take place on Thursday, June 26th. There are multiple awards given out during the course of the evening and you can help us decide some of them.

Softball Standings

I didn't get the updated Northern Hills Conference standings from the coach who does them for me until 5 p.m. today, so the ones in the paper were probably off by a few games. But I have included the updated ones below.

Also, on the statistics, I know we left out Waldwick and Westwood. Andy and I will try to update them if we get a chance.

Oh, one more thing, IHA is seeking a game next week before the State Tournament, anyone interested can contact the IHA athletic department. Also Cedar Grove is looking for a game either Thursday or Friday, those interested can contact the Cedar Grove athletic department.

Softball stats

Happy rainy Monday afternoon, everyone. There likely won't be any softball games played today, but that doesn't mean you have to go without your softball fix. It's time for this week's edition of North Jersey softball stats.

And as always, every coach received an email with a stat sheet to fill out (everyone except Bob Aughey of Fort Lee and Craig Nielsen of Pascack Valley -- they don't have email) and were asked to return it. Many coaches do not keep stats, or believe we should print stats. If you don't see your team, its probably because your coach did not send them in. Also, as far as the accuracy of the stats, that's up to the coaches.

Check out the stats after the jump!

Girls lacrosse: Fair Lawn's despair

It was a long Saturday morning into afternoon for Fair Lawn's girls lacrosse team.  A 15-1 loss to Wayne Hills dropped their record to 3-8 and represented the huge gap that exists between the NBIL haves and have nots.

That the Cutters are in the lower echelon is as much a result of their socio-economic demographic as it is their play between the lines, and therein lies one of the biggest issues that faces schools in this day and age.

Thoughts and Prayers for Bill Grundy

Anyone who attended the Ridgewood-West Islip boys lacrosse game was treated to a fantastic high school sporting event.  You may have also noticed that all of the Ridgewood players had the letters "BG" written on their legs in grease paint.

The tribute was for Bill Grundy, a highly respected coach with the Ridgewood varsity football team the past two seasons and a builder of young men as a head coach in the Ridgewood junior football program for years before that.

Grundy has been part of many an exciting sporting event in his own right, but he is now facing the biggest challenge of his life.

Passaic baseball: Wayne Hills 10, Hawthorne Christian 0

As they entered the opening game of the Passaic County baseball tournament, Wayne Hills was in one of those uncomfortable spots.  The Patriots, the number two seed, were hosting 15th seed Hawthorne Christian, a team they were absolutely expected to beat.

A team not yet comfortable with lofty seeds, the Pats found themselves in the nervous position of struggling with themselves as much as the Defenders in the first three innings.  Call it a combination of nerves and trying to do too much all at once.

Bergen County Softball Quarterfinals

The field was in great shape as things got rolling this morning with the Bergen County Tournament softball semifinals from Ramapo HS.

Plus, those programs sure were nice, huh? Actually, I am sure there was a mistake in there somewhere, but I did my best.

All scores and quick thoughts below.

County Softball (final update)

Ok, its 7:30 a.m. as I write this, (the Varsity Infant was up 2 hours ago), and if they decide to postpone the Bergen County softball games, I will have something up here right away. They aren't too worried about the infield, but the outfield because of all the rain.

[UPDATE: I spoke with Tournament Director Darren White at 8:30 and he said it looks like a go, that they were vacuuming off the tarp at Ramapo HS and working on the OF. Darren was on his way there and said they still hoped for 1st pitch around 10 a.m.]

[FINAL UPDATE: 9 a.m. Games are good to go for Bergen County, just spoke to Leslie at Ramapo HS, first pitch at 10 a.m.]

But, the Passaic County Tournament has seen some changes. These are all quarterfinal games....
Wayne Valley is playing at West Milford at 2 p.m. (it was originally noon)
Hawthorne is playing at Eastern Christian at 3 p.m. (it was originally 1 p.m.)
Lakeland is at Clifton at 5 p.m.

Volleyball moving to best-of-5

The sport of volleyball will be making changes soon. This is both a good thing and a not-so-good thing among coaches.

The good decision made on Wednesday is that volleyball -- that's both boys and girls -- will once again be a best-of-5 competitoon, rather than the best-of-3 it has been for the past three seasons. I'm not going to take sides on this issue. I know there are coaches out there who would rather things remained a best-of-3, but most of the states in this country, play a best-of-5. That's also what is played in college and international matches.

Tenafly, Dwight-Englewood, Ridgefield win BCSL golf titles

Tenafly won the BCSL American Division golf tournament by three strokes over River Dell this afternoon at Rockleigh Golf Course, while River Dell senior Eric Salizzoni won the individual title by three strokes over Tenafly senior Matt Cohen.

Dwight-Englewood repeated as Olympic Division titlist and Cresskill's Eric Lesorgen won the individual title. Ridgefield repeated as National Division champ and Hasbrouck Heights' Conor Cafferty won individual honors.

There will be a story in Friday's Record, and you can click below for the team and individual scores:

Doidge, Bergen Catholic win NNJIL golf titles

Bergen Catholic sophomore Drew Doidge won the NNJIL individual title and led the Crusaders to the team title this afternoon at Emerson Golf Club.

Doidge shot 2-over-par 73 to finish two shots ahead of freshman Tom Lantzounis of Don Bosco and BC's quartet shot 318 to finish four strokes ahead oBosco and 12 ahead of Ridgewood.

BC won Division C, Ridgewood Division B and Bergen Tech Division A, while Ridgewood won the Girls title.

There will be a story in Friday's Record, and you can click below for all the individual and team scores:

The 2008 Mondos

Before we get to the Mondos for 2008, I apologize to Al Taliaferro, I dont believe he was 'blackballing' me from the county seeding meeting and I was wrong for saying so. I should have checked the by-laws (although, when I asked the other coaches if it was ok, they said it was, so I guess they didn't know the by-laws either). I had pleasant conversation with Mr. Stevenson yesterday and will submit a letter asking the BCWCA to amend its rules. As far as Al, he is an outstanding coach of whom I have much respect.

Now, the first Mondo (the mid-season awards) goes to....