Baseball: Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex seeds (official)

Pairings and seeds for the fifth annual Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament were released on Saturday.

The tournament gets underway on Wednesday, April 23 with preliminary round games. Winners advance to first-round action on Saturday, April 26.

Quarterfinals will be played Saturday, May 3 and the semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, May 10. The championship game will be contested at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at Diamond Nation in Flemington.

Hunterdon Central is the defending champion after a 10-0 win over Vernon in the 2013 final. Coach Mike Raymond's Red Devils also won the title in 2010. Pope John (2011) and Phillipsburg (2012) are the other schools to win the tournament.

The official seeds and pairings for this year' tournament were determined using a team's power points through only its first nine games or by Friday's cutoff. According to sources, a last minute use of the head-to-head criteria was also used to construct the brackets, unbeknownst to some coaches.

Preliminary and first-round pairings pit Sussex vs. Hunterdon-Warren in the split brackets. Sussex teams are seeded 1-10 in one pool and Hunterdon-Warren teams are seeded 1-10 in another pool. The groupings are then combined in the two brackets (example: Sussex No. 7 plays Hunterdon-Warren No. 10, etc.).

Pairing and seeds

(Current records in parentheses)

A-Hunterdon-Warren
B-Sussex

Top bracket

9A-Belvidere (4-3) at 8B-Hopatcong (1-8), winner to meet 1A-North Hunterdon (6-5)
5A-Delaware Valley (5-3) at 4B-Newton (4-4)
6B-Wallkill Valley (3-4) at 3A-Hackettstown (4-4)
10B-Vernon (1-4) at 7A-South Hunterdon (3-5), winner to meet 2B-Lenape Valley (7-0)

Bottom bracket

9B-Sussex Tech (1-7) at 8A-Phillipsburg (1-9), winner to meet 1B-Pope John (7-1)
5B-Kittatinny (3-3) at 4A-Warren Hills (7-4)
6A-North Warren (5-1) at 3B-Sparta (6-3)
10A-Voorhees (0-8) at 7B-High Point (1-4-1), winner to meet 2A-Hunterdon Central (9-1)