While the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten went just 14-13 in the past week, leading to additional volatility in the rankings, Immaculata remains at No. 1 for a fourth straight week, a position it's held this year for all but the preseason list. It was also a bit of a light week, with many games rained out on Saturday.

Senior Ryan Auten pitched his second complete game of the year, striking out 13 and allowing just two hits, in a 6-0 win for top-ranked Immaculata over No. 2 Ridge, completing a sweep of their two-game regular season series. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play live from Diamond Nation in Flemington, NJ, on April 22, 2026.

Wake Forest-bound Ryan Auten threw his second complete game of the year, and No. 1 Immaculata picked up a 3-0 home win over No. 2 Ridge Wednesday at Diamond Nation in Flemington, sweeping the season series, and all but securing the top-seed in the Somerset County Tournament. Auten was throwing fire, as he always does, right from the first pitch of the ball game. 

For a second straight week, the top four teams continued to win - leaving Immaculata, Ridge, Middlesex and Edison right where they've been - but everyone else keeps beating each other up, and two new teams join the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten for Week Three. Immaculata (7-2) remains in the No. 1 position after a 2-1 week. In Skyland Conference play, the Spartans swept Bridgewater-Raritan - 13-3 at home, and 5-2 on the road - Tuesday and Thursday, before falling 7-3 to Delsea in a non-conference game on Saturday.

Montgomery rallied three times - the last time coming in the bottom of the seventh inning - to beat Pingry in a Skyland Conference crossover game, 11-10, with a two-out, bases loaded, walk-off infield hit by senior Evan Puleio. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas call all the play-by-play live from TD Bank Park in Bridgewater on April 11, 2026.

Just when you thought you've seen it all, you haven't. Way back in the first inning of Watchung Hills' Skyland Conference Delaware Division home game against Bridgewater-Raritan Thursday - heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio - first baseman Max Payne did something he may never, ever do again. He broke his bat - a metal bat - on what turned out to be an infield hit to the left side.

After a third straight sectional championship in Central Jersey Group 4, and a second straight trip to the Group 4 state finals, Montgomery boys' basketball coach Kris Grundy has been honored with the John Wooden Legacy Award, given annually to one boys' and girls' coach in every state. It's from the New Jersey and National High School Basketball Coaches association in conjunction with the John Wooden Family and the Wooden Foundation.

The high school baseball season is already a week old, though a few got started a little earlier than most, but more than a few have started the 2026 campaign red hot. Some were expected, others have turned out to be pleasant surprises. And that could juggle our first in-season Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, the Week One edition of which comes out Monday morning.

Second-ranked Immaculata got three late runs - one in each of the final three innings - and a combined one-hitter from starting pitcher Cole Raymond and reliever Bryson Auten to beat No. 8 Hillsborough on the road on Opening Day 2026, 3-0. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play live from Hillsbrough High School on March 31, 2026.

Ryan Auten is the senior pitcher heading to Wake Forest, but it was his freshman brother, Bryson, who got the win Tuesday on Opening Day for Immaculata. Cole Raymond made his first start, after coming out of the bullpen last season, and went 3 1/3 innings without allowing a hit or a run, and just three baserunners. But Bryson Auten got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth out of the 'pen, then finished things off for a 3-0 win for No.

Sometimes, the cyclical nature of public school high school sports is more powerful than any coaching or skill level can overcome. That was the case in 2025 for the Bridgewater-Raritan baseball team, which was dominant en route to winning the state Group 4 title the year prior with a veteran group that had played together for years. But so many key players graduated from that squad, and that - coupled with a ton of close losses - resulted in a 7-18 campaign in last season, after going 30-3 in 2024.

The 2013-14 Hillsborough boys' basketball team will be remembered as one of the greats in school history, going 22-3 and beating Gill St. Bernard's to win the Somerset County Tournament championship. But the 2014-15 team was a pleasant surprise. While they didn't get close to winning the SCT that year, they made an improbably run in the state tournament, stunning Freehold Township on the road in the Central Jersey Group 4 championship game.

It was 22 years ago when Bound Brook alum Anthony Melesurgo took the head coaching job at his alma mater. When he told people, some thought he was crazy. More than two decades later, he's reached yet another milestone in his coaching career: win No. 400. It came Tuesday night, with an 83-45 Skyland Conference Mountain Division home victory over Belvidere.

The seventh-ranked Immaculata Spartans got 26 points - and six threes - from senior Riley Gorman to win their eleventh straight game over Somerville, defeating the Pioneers 81-53 on Saturday, January 17, 2026. Click here to read the game story, complete with postgame reaction from Riley Gorman and head coach Ryan McKeever, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen! Here's a photo gallery from Central Jersey Sports Radio's coverage of the game:

No. 2 Gill St. Bernard's got 22 points from Jahmal Dixon, while No. 1 Montgomery saw Ethan Lin set the program's career scoring record, but it was the Knights who beat the Cougars on the road, 64-53, in a Skyland Conference Delaware Division game. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the play-by-play from Montgomery High School in Skillman on January 8, 2026.

Montgomery has had a solid boys' basketball program for many years under head coach Kris Grundy, but the last two may be the pinnacle of their success so far, and they're not done yet. When Monty opens its 2025-26 season Saturday at home in the NJBCA Tip-Off Classic down in Skillman (5:30 pm vs. Don Bosco Prep) the lineup will look a little different, but the goal is top even what they've done the last couple of years.

On the one hand, this is new, or at least different for Rutgers Prep girls' basketball coach Mary Klinger. The Lady Argonauts are coming off a season in which they did not play in the Somerset County Tournament final, their first miss since 2014. On the other hand, everyone who played a significant contributing role in 2024-25 - a season in which Klinger didn't have a single senior to rely on - is back for this season.

With the NJSIAA instituting a statewide running clock mercy rule in high school basketball - standardizing the previously-optional rule across New Jersey - it will certainly have effects on many games and programs this winter. The intent, of course, is to prevent mammoth blowouts, or at least keep them from getting further out of hand.. Now, when a score differential reaches 35 points in the second half, the clock will run continuously, only to be stopped for time outs, injuries, technical fouls, or officials' stoppages.

Some rules created by NFHS - the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sets standard rules for high schools across the country - are optional, such as the shot clock in basketball. Others govern basic rules of all the sports played in high school, and must be followed. While New Jersey is still one of several states that have not implemented the shot clock in basketball - often due to concerns about the added cost - one rule it will now implement statewide is that of a running clock.

More changes are coming to the state's power point system, under a change recently announced by the NJSIAA. According to an email sent to athletic directors and coaches across New Jersey that was obtained by Central Jersey Sports Radio, the NJSIAA made the changes based on two "areas of concern" it says emerged after seeking feedback from member schools: how out-of-state opponents factor into calculations, and whether all games should be averaged, or if instead a only the best results should count.

In a huge and wide-ranging rules change for high school baseball, the National Federation of State High School Associations - which makes rules for sports nationwide - has adopted the use of a double first base, which adds an extra base of the same size in foul territory, in an effort to cut down on injuries, and avoid interference calls.

Every team has its ups and downs in a season. Even those that finish that rare undefeated season don't do it without any difficulty. But it's how they bounce back and overcome adversity that defines a team. And in the case of the Hillsborough baseball team, they did that just this season, bouncing all the way to the Central Jersey Group 4 title.

With three teams from the Central Jersey Sports Radio listening area winning sectional championships on Thursday, now the attention turns to the Group Round of the state tournament. There are four teams remaining in the state in each group, just 16 public schools remaining in the entire state, and three are from our area. Hillsborough rallies late to shock Old Bridge, 13-6, in CJ4 title game for program’s first title since 2012, third in school history…

Westfield may have only scored runs in two innings, but it was runs in bunches for the Blue Devils, who used a five-run second inning and a four-run fifth to take down top-seeded Ridge, 9-6, in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 final Thursday in Basking Ridge.   After a quick top half of the first inning, it seemed as though Ridge would do as it did all season long throughout this one, rely on the pitching to shut down the opposition.

One one hand, the two teams that will meet in the Central Jersey Group 4 Final at Fred Cole Field Thursday are very similar, with good pitching staffs, solid defensively, and both can hit. On the other, this is sort of old hat for Old Bridge, which won the section in 2024, and went to the semifinals a year ago, losing to Monroe.