SJ Group 4 Baseball Will Have A Deep Field

by Marc Narducci | May 8, 2026

The NJSIAA baseball tournament is right around the corner, with the South Jersey public school tournament games beginning on May 27.

Among the more interesting races will be in South Jersey Group 4.

Cherokee is the defending South Jersey and state Group 4 champion and this year the Chiefs figure to be among the lower seeded teams if they qualify.

That is not a knock on Cherokee, but instead an example of how deep Group 4 is.

The top 16 teams will qualify and another team that is currently not in the top 16 is Cherry Hill East, which began the week No. 18 in power points. Like Cherokee, East is a quality team that competes in the always difficult Olympic Conference American Division.

If Cherokee and/or Cherry Hill East qualify for the tournament, few teams would relish meeting either in the first round.

For teams like East, time is running out. The cutoff date for the state tournament is May 16. East plays five Group 4 teams before the cutoff – Rancocas Valley, Eastern, Washington Township, Cherokee and Bridgeton.

Entering the week, here were the Group 4 leaders in power points:

1.Kingsway, 2. GCIT, 3. Vineland, 4. Pennsauken, 5. Eastern, 6. Williamstown, 7. Howell, 8. Rancocas Valley, 9. Egg Harbor Township, 10. Washington Township, 11. Lenape, 12. Southern, 13. Atlantic Tech, 14. Cherokee, 15. Toms River North, 16. Millville, 17. Central Regional, 18. Cherry Hill East, 19. Atlantic City, 20. Bridgeton.

As the top seed, Kingsway will be difficult to beat. The Dragons began the week 11-3, but were off the past week. They play in the difficult Tri-County Royal Division, and two of their three losses were to division teams Gloucester Catholic and Clearview, which are consensus Top 10 teams in South Jersey. The third loss was to another Top 10 squad, Bishop Eustace.

Kingsway has a strong pitching staff, but the offense is the real calling card. The Dragons entered the week with a .334 team batting average. Senior AJ Ward leads the team with a .436 average and 18 RBIs.

Kingsway will certainly be a tough out.

The same could be said about several other teams. One interesting team is Pennsauken, the current No. 4 seed. The Indians began the week 11-2 and probably showed more in a recent loss than in all the victories.

That was a 1-0 loss to defending state Group 3 champion Northern Burlington, which improved to 15-0 with the victory. Kelwin Batista took the loss, but he is the type of ace that nobody will want to face in the postseason.

He started the week 4-2 with a 0.98 ERA and has 210 strikeouts. Against one of the best offensive teams in South Jersey, Batista threw six hitless innings, allowing one unearned run while striking out 11 and walking none.

Keep in mind, Pennsauken at the moment, is only the fourth seed, again demonstrating the depth in Group 4.

There are probably at least 10 teams that could stake a legitimate claim to being in the title hunt.

Many of the other Groups also have several serious title contenders, but just not as many as Group 4.

Cherry Hill East lefthander Nate Dekerlegand / Marc Narducci

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Author: Marc Narducci

SJ Group 4 Baseball Will Have A Deep Field

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