St. Joseph players line up as the team takes infield before their GMC Tournament semifinal game against South Plainfield on May 13, 2023 at Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The pitching has worked itself out, the hitting has been there all season long. Now, an experienced St. Joseph-Metuchen baseball team will try to win back the GMC Tournament crown from the Raiders.
The third-seeded Falcons (18-8, 7-5 GMC Red) will battle North Brunswick (18-5, 14-4 GMC Red) Sunday afternoon in a rematch of last year’s final, except this time the Raiders are the defending champs and the No. 1 seed, like St. Joe’s was last year.
The game was moved from Saturday due to rain in the forecast, and first pitch now is set for 1:00 Sunday at Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick on the campus of East Brunswick Magnet School, and you can hear all the live play-by-play with pregame beginning at 12:30 on Central Jersey Sports Radio – driven by Auto Lounge of Edison.
Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action. Click here to listen.
The challenge for St. Joe’s will be two-fold. One: keep its lineup going strong. Pitching ruled the day, especially of late, in the GMC Tournament semifinals and finals. In fact, this year’s semis both were 2-1 ballgames.
Their opponent on the mound is Zack Konstantinovsky, the Rutgers-bound senior who has only allowed four earned runs all year. In a semifinal win over Monroe, he gave up a run in the first inning on four hits – two of which came after the run scored, including an infield hit on a bunt – but got out of it, leaving the bases loaded.
The Falcons didn’t get another hit the rest of the game, and only had two other baserunners: one via walk, the other hit by a pitch.
The second challenge is the lineup that starting pitcher Jimmy Mulvaney (4-3, 1.85 ERA) will have to face. North Brunswick is hitting .345 with 19 home runs on the season, led by eight from senior Omar Carreras, and six from Konstantinovsky.
The Falcons were swept two games in divisional play by North Brunswick this year, and have lost four straight to the Raiders. The last win for the green-and-white against North came in 2019 – pre-COVID – a 5-2 decision in late April of that year.
Click below for a preview of the title game with St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray:
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