Looking at Thursday

Four key games on the schedule today, all of which will impact conference races and the seeding of the upcoming Somerset County Tournament.

Today's featured matchup, which my colleague, Jerry Carino, will cover for the Courier News, has defending Skyland Conference Delaware East Division champion Montgomery traveling across county lines to take on defending Delaware West champ Hunterdon Central.

It's the Courier News' No. 3 team vs. No. 1 and I expect this to be a war.

Montgomery stumbled a bit Tuesday, but still managed a 9-6 victory over Watchung Hills, and while Central has cruised through the season's first week and change, this will be the Red Devils' first real test against an elite team.

Second-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan, meanwhile, will be at No. 4 North Hunterdon today in a game that is reportedly to be televised on Comcast (not sure if it's going to be live, or broadcast taped at a later date).

North has looked great in the early going and has shown no ill-effects from graduation losses. The Panthers, meanwhile, have designs on their first-ever conference title, and this will be a key game in that quest.

While the big guns battle in Hunterdon County, Valley Division contender Bound Brook will make the trip up to Warren County to meet defending conference champ Belvidere.

If the Crusaders are going to be major players in the conference, this is a must-win for Courtney Wood and friends. The County Seaters have already knocked off a couple of Raritan Division teams, including Somerville.

Speaking of the Pioneers, Somerville will play host to Rutgers Prep today as the Argonauts continue to try and make inroads against the county's top public school squads.

Rutgers Prep played a very competitive game against Immaculata yesterday -- falling 4-2 -- and the game with Somerville today will directly impact where both these teams end up seeded in the Somerset County Tournament, which will be seeded next Wednesday night, April 16.

There's rain in the forecast all weekend, so enjoy the softball while you can.


PROGRAMMING NOTES:

The second episode of the Bats and Balls podcast should be up online sometime this afternoon. Technical difficulties prevented it from going up Wednesday like we hoped, but I've been assured it will be up and running by today.

The podcast can be accessed at www.c-n.com/specialsections/multimedia

Also, the first full softball notebook package of the season will run in Saturday's VARSITY section of the Courier News, complete with notebook, standings, Softball Athlete of the Week, and the latest Top 10.

Here's hoping it gets up online this time around.