Before the Shore Conference Tournament and the state playoffs, the post-season begins early in high school baseball with the Monmouth County Baseball Tournament. Middletown South earned the highest local seed with the No. 3 spot with Red Bank Catholic right behind as the fourth seed. The Eagles made noise early in the season with two-game sweeps of Marlboro and CBA sandwiched in between an upset win over Red Bank Catholic. Middletown South’s five game win streak was snapped on April 11 in a 6-3 loss to Freehold Township. Meanwhile, RBC started the season with a 5-2 mark and features a strong stable of starting pitchers along with a deep and dangerous lineup. On April 13, coach Buddy Hausman’s team journeyed to North Brunswick Community Park to take on Delbarton. The Green Wave are the No. 1 ranked team in New Jersey and had potential first round MLB Draft pick Jack Leiter pitching against RBC. The son of MLB pitching great Al Leiter attracted a large contingent of scouts and while the Caseys lost the game 9-7, they no doubt left with some confidence after getting 10 hits and three runs against one of the top high school pitchers in the country. The preliminary rounds of the MCT begin this week with the quarterfinals set for Sunday, April 28. The championship game will be played at Lakewood’s First Energy Park Tuesday, May 7.