Giallusi leads high-octane St. Joseph offense into GMCT final against defending champ North Brunswick

Eight out of every ten at bats, Mark Gialluisi gets on base.

Those are astonishing numbers for any leadoff hitter, but for a catcher who also doesn’t take a courtesy runner, stays on base, and has stolen more bags than anyone else on the team (23) that’s particularly outstanding.

It’s a big reason why his third-seeded St. Joseph-Metuchen Falcons are in the GMC title game for the third year in a row on Sunday, when they take on top-seed and defending champion North Brunswick, in a game moved from Saturday due to rain in the forecast.

Sunday’s game time is set for an hour earlier, 1:00 pm at Ray Cipperly Field on the campus of the East Brunswick Magnet School, and you can hear the entire game start to finish on Central Jersey Sports Radio, driven by Auto Lounge of Edison. Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will be on the call, with pregame getting underway at 12:30. Click here to listen.

Gialluisi doesn’t even know all the stats. He just keeps hitting and getting on base, and taking extra bases, things all good leadoff hitters do.

And then he lets the rest of the lineup drive him in.

He’s also thought a lot about how to have success against Zack Konstantinovsky, the Rutgers-bound ace who will start for the Raiders Sunday. In their first meeting against Zack K this year, back in mid-April, North Brunswick took a 6-1 decision from the Falcons, who managed only three hits in the game, and a single, solitary unearned run in the fifth inning.

This is the last go-around for Gialluisi, who hopes to cap his third high school season with a GMC Tournament championship, his second in those three seasons, after they won it over South Brunswick in 2021. And there’s also the state tournament to think about, where the Falcons will have a first-round bye.

Gialluisi will play his college ball at Virginia – he says it’s his dream school – but there’s a lot of high school baseball reality and opportunity still in front of him, starting Sunday with another GMC Tournament crown on the line.