A complete preview of the 2022 GMC Tournament Championship: St. Joseph-Metuchen vs. North Brunswick

Sunday at noon, St. Joseph of Metuchen will play North Brunswick for the 2022 GMC Tournament Championship in baseball.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will have complete coverage – presented by Dayton Toyota Service, Route 130 in South Brunswick – starting at 11:30 am with our pregame show; first pitch is scheduled for noon. Justin Sontupe will call all the action.

The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but postponed a day due to thunderstorms in the forecast for Saturday.

Click here to listen to the live broadcast!

Scroll through this story for the finals at-a-glance, interviews with the two head coaches, links to our coverage of both teams, how they got here, team records and finals history, and other notes and stats.

GMC FINALS AT-A-GLANCE

Teams:
(1) St. Joseph-Metuchen (21-6, 13-1, GMC Red Champions, #4 in NJ)
(6) North Brunswick (19-9, 10-6 GMC White, 3rd place)

Starting Pitchers:
St. Joseph: Andrew Goldan (5-1, 1.44 ERA)
North Brunswick: Zack Konstantinovsky (5-1, 0.66 ERA)

Date and Time: Sunday, May 29 – 12 noon
Location: Ray Cipperly Field at East Brunswick Tech HS
Listen On: Central Jersey Sports Radio (Click here to listen live!)
Announcers: Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe

Head Coach Interviews:

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

St. Joseph:
First Round: def. (16) South River 5-0
Quarterfinals: def. (9) South Brunswick 14-4
Semifinals: def. (5) Woodbridge 10-1

North Brunswick:
First Round: def. (11) Colonia 7-0)
Quarterfinals: def. (3) Middlesex 14-13
Semifinals: def. (7) East Brunswick 1-0 (12 innings)

Coverage of St. Joseph:

• Falcons have added maturity to hitting, pitching and fielding
• Brown says St. Joseph took 2021 to bond, and still won the GMC; this year it’s full steam ahead
• INSTANT REPLAY-GMCT Semifinals: (1) St. Joseph-Metuchen 10, (5) Woodbridge 1
• St. Joseph pecks away at Woodbridge to earn second straight trip to GMC title tilt
• Defending GMCT champ St. Joe’s has dominated all year, looks to continue the trend in Saturday’s semis
• With no question who’ll get top seed in GMC Tournament; it’s where the rest will fall, and who will avoid St. Joe’s
• INSTANT REPLAY: No. 1 St. Joseph-Metuchen 3, No. 5 Monroe 0
• On a quiet day for the bats, pitching paves the way for St. Joe’s in 3-0 win over Monroe
• Top-ranked St. Joe’s opens huge Red Divsion home-and-home with No. 9 Monroe in Metuchen Wednesday
• St. Joe’s leads inaugural Bellamy & Son Paving Baseball Top Ten

Coverage of North Brunswick:

• Two catchers, one goal: bringing North Brunswick its first baseball GMC Tournament title
• INSTANT REPLAY-GMCT Semifinals: (6) North Brunswick 1, (7) East Brunswick 0 (12 innings)
• North Brunswick outlasts East Brunswick in 12, punches ticket to GMCT Finals for first time in over a decade
• Take two: North Brunswick, back in GMCT semis, seeking first trip to title game in over a decade
• INSTANT REPLAY: North Brunswick, No. 10 Middlesex split doubleheader
• North Brunswick, No. 10 Middlesex split doubleheader, as Raiders and Blue Jays each rally late
• No. 10 Middlesex seeks 5th straight league win since stepping up to GMC White when North Brunswick rolls into town for twinbill

MORE GMC & TOURNAMENT COVERAGE:

• St. Joseph, North Brunswick broadcasters talk Falcons-Raiders in GMCT Finals
• Future Rutgers stars Goldan and Konstantinovsky: the unflappable vs. the unhittable
• Three upsets, top seed advances, and a controversial call: all in a night at the GMCT quarterfinal
• Nearly all top-seeds advance, Tuttoilmondo sets two K records, Barrons get “revenge win” in GMC Tournament 1st Round
• St. Joe’s is the favorite, but here’s how all 16 teams can win the GMC Tournament
• St. Joseph-Metuchen earns top seed in 2022 GMC Tournament

FINALS HISTORY:

This will be the second meeting between the Falcons and Raiders in the GMC finals. St. Joe’s won the first in 2009, 6-0.

The teams did not face each other in the regular season this year.

St. Joseph (7-1):

2004: St. Joseph 6, Carteret 0
2005: East Brunswick 8, St. Joseph 1
2006: St. Joseph 11, South Amboy 0
2008: St. Joseph 3, Old Bridge 2
2009: St. Joseph 6, North Brunswick 0
2014: St. Joseph 1, South Plainfield 0
2017: St. Joseph 1, Monroe 0
2021: St. Joseph 2, South Brunswick 0

North Brunswick (0-2):

2009: St. Joseph 6, North Brunswick 0
2010: South Brunswick 9, North Brunswick 2

NOTES AND NUGGETS:

The “Greater” Brunswicks: A team with “Brunswick” in its name has been to the last three GMC Tournament finals, and four of the last six. They’re all the surrounding Brunswicks, too. East Brunswick won the tournament in 2016, South Brunswick made it in 2019 and 2021, losing both, and North Brunswick is in it this year. But South and East Brunswick are the only teams ever to win it. The Vikings won in 2002 and 2010 – beating the Raiders in ’10 – while East Brunswick won the very first GMCT in 1986, then again in 1991, 1997, 2005 and 2016. New Brunswick has never made a GMC title game.

It’s Joe’s and Edison: The Falcons are making their ninth appearance in the GMC title game, tied with Edison for the most berths in the final in league history. East Brunswick is just behind them with seven, with South Plainfield has made it five times. North Brunswick is among five teams that have made the finals three times, joining JP Stevens, Bishop Ahr (now St. Thomas Aquinas, but all were under their former name), Piscataway and Old Bridge.

Will it be more Joe’s and Edison? The Eagles own the record for GMC Tournament wins with eight, but a victory Sunday by the Falcons would tie them with Edison. East Brunswick has five. No one else has more than two: South Brunswick and Old Bridge have each won a pair of titles.

Goose Eggs: In eight prior GMC Tournament finals appearances, St. Joseph has only allowed nine runs, but eight of them came in one game. That happened in their only loss – they’re 7-1 in the finals – an 8-1 defeat in 2005 at the hands of East Brunswick. In their seven wins, they have pitched six shutouts, including last year’s 2-0 win over South Brunswick. Old Bridge, in a 3-2 loss to the Falcons in the 2008 title game, is the only team to score against St. Joe’s in their finals wins. That also includes a 1-0 win for the Falcons over South Plainfield in 2014, which they won on a bases loaded walk-off walk.

Red Division Rules: A team from the top division in the GMC has won four of the last five finals. East Brunswick won it in 2016, while St. Joe’s won in 2017. South Plainfield out of the White took the 2018 title, but Old Bridge claimed the flag for the Red again in 2019, and last year, St. Joe’s won it all.

Higher Seeds Rule Lately: The last lower seeded team to win a GMC title was in 2018, when 14th-seed South Plainfield beat 12th-seed Perth Amboy 2-1 in a 12 inning title game.