Bridgewater-Raritan and ace Megan Zinn are cementing their place as one of the teams to beat in the county and conference

(through Thursday’s games)

1. Hillsborough (10-0) – The Raiders previous best undefeated start had been 8-0 in 2009.

2. South Plainfield (11-0) – The Tigers join Hillsborough and Bound Brook as the area’s only undefeated clubs

3. North Hunterdon (8-3) – The Lions won a drama-filled battle with Pope John XXIII on Monday, a possible preview of HWST final between tournament’s two top-ranked teams

RELATED: North Hunterdon’s Carly Severini is the Courier News Softball Player of the Week

4. Bridgewater-Raritan (9-2) – The Panthers have won five straight since falling to Hillsborough.

RELATED: Latest softball notebook, featuring a look at Bridgewater-Raritan fantastic start

5. Hunterdon Central (9-2) – The Red Devils have won nine of 10 since a one-run opening-day loss to Bridgewater-Raritan — the lone blemish a setback to North.

6. Watchung Hills (8-4) – The Warriors bounced back with two straight wins after dropping a pair.

7. Bernards (8-2) – Should be interesting to see how the Mountaineers fare when they start facing some of the big guns in the area, especially as the county tournament advances

8. Governor Livingston (7-2) – The Highlanders are looking for their sixth straight trip to the Union County final when that tournament opens Saturday

8. Piscataway (4-3) – The Chiefs have dropped three of four since their 3-0 start.

10. Immaculata (3-5) – The Spartans don’t figure to remain below .500 for long, though playing in the Skyland Delaware certainly won’t make it easy

STANDINGS: The latest Skyland Conference and Courier-News area standings

Simeon Pincus can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com and on Twitter @SimeonPincus

For more softball coverage, check out the Inner Circle softball blog at http://blogs.MyCentralJersey.com/softball