Old Bridge carrying GMC flag as lone sectional champ into Group 4 semifinal battle with Eastern

With all the great baseball that was played by the Greater Middlesex Conference this season, particularly in the Red Division, one team remains: Old Bridge.

The Knights (20-8, 7-5 in the GMC Red) didn’t even make the county tournament semifinals, showing how everybody could beat anybody, but here they are, Central Jersey Group 4 champions for the first time since 2015, and now in the Group 4 semifinals, where they will take on the Eastern Vikings (17-10-1), the South Jersey Group 4 champions, out of the Olympic Conference.

Scroll through for a complete preview of the game, which can be heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio:

Group 4 Semifinals: Old Bridge (20-8) vs. Eastern (17-10-1)
When: Monday, 5 pm
Where: Fred Cole Field, campus of Carl Sandburg Middle School in Old Bridge, NJ
Coverage: Mike Pavlichko, Dylan Allen on play-by-play (click here to listen)
First Pitch Forecast: 76, partly sunny, NNW wind 10 mph (out to centerfield)

PROBABLE STARTERS
Old Bridge: Frank Papeo (6-2, 1.56 ERA)
Eastern: Logan Dawson (3-1, 2.36 ERA)

HEAD COACHES and PREVIEW INTERVIEWS

Old Bridge: Matt Donaghue, 5th season (81-62)

Rob Christ: Rob Christ, 19th season (447-205-1)

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

Old Bridge (No. 1 seed in Central Jersey Group 4)

def. (16) West Windsor-Plainsboro North 3-0 in 1st round
def. (9) West Windsor-Plainsboro South 10-0 in quarterfinals
def. (5) East Brunswick 8-0 in semifinals
def. (2) North Brunswick 2-1 in finals

Eastern (No. 11 seed in South Jersey Group 4)

def. (6) Millville 12-0 in 1st round
def. (3) Egg Harbor 2-0 in quarterfinals
def. (7) Southern 11-2 in semifinals
def. (5) Rancocas Valley 2-0 in finals

WHAT’S NEXT? The winner of today’s game goes to the statewide Group 4 finals, set for 4 pm Saturday at Bob DeMeo Field at Veterans Park in Hamilton, against the winner or the North 1 vs. North 2 game, featuring North 1 winner Ridgewood (22-7) hosting North 2 winner Bayonne (25-6). That game is a 4 pm first pitch Monday.

Game Preview

Old Bridge finished second in the GMC Red Division to North Brunswick, despite having beaten the Raiders twice in the regular season, once in 10 innings. But they were bounced by South Plainfield – another Red Division team they’d beaten in the regular season – in the GMC Tournament quarterfinals. En route to the Central Jersey Group 4 final, they pitched three shutouts, and only allowed one run to North Brunswick in the title game, beating the Raiders for a third time this season, this time 2-1 for the Knights’ first sectional title since 2015. That year, they lost to Williamstown in the semifinals.

Old Bridge is a veteran group. Thomas Papeo is the top hitter at .407, driving in 18 runs, while Kyle McSorley has a team-leading 27 RBIs and six home runs; both are seniors. Fellow senior Mike Villani is hitting .382 with 14 runs batted in, third on the team.

And if you did the easy math earlier, Old Bridge has allowed a grand total of one run in four playoff games, as the pitching duo of Justin Hascup and Frank Papeo has been lights out, and nearly unhittable. They’ve split the starts, and along with reliever Justin “J.T.” Meyer, they have allowed a combined nine hits in those four games.

Eastern is the surprise 11-seed out of South Jersey Group 4, on their longest winning streak of the season, at six games, having entered the state playoffs at just 12-10-1. (They had a regular season win between their first round and quarterfinal games over Camden Catholic.) They’ve also had three shutouts in these playoffs, only allowing two runs to Southern in the sectional semifinals. Their win over Rancocas Valley – the fifth seed – in the final came after a pair of regular season losses, 7-0 on April 24th and 8-7 on May 16th.

The Vikings are led offensively by Jack Bauer, who’s hitting .450 with four runs batted in, but he won’t be in the starting lineup against Old Bridge; he could see time as a pinch hitter or late-game substitution. Next up is senior catcher Bill Bentliff, hitting .354 with 10 RBI, and freshman Vinny Mellilo, hitting .328 on the year.

Is it 2019 all over again?

After two off years following COVID – at 14-9 in 2021 and 12-13 last season – the Vikings are back where they left off prior to the pandemic year shutdown. In 2019, they were 23-9, won South Jersey Group 4, and beat Manalapan in the Group 4 semis, before losing 2-1 in the Group 4 final to Ridgewood. Eastern had won 20 or more games every year from 2015 through 2019, and though this is the longest they’ve gone in the state tournament since, they can’t get to 20 this year. They’re at 17 wins now, with only a maximum two more games remaining.

That 2019 season was the last year Old Bridge had made a sectional final; they lost to Manalapan. And Ridgewood is in the other Group 4 final, with first pitch set for 4 pm today in Bayonne.

Is Central 4 the real deal?

The winner of Central Jersey Group 4 has won four of the last seven statewide Group 4 titles. That includes Hunterdon Central in 2016 and 2018, Middletown South in 2021, and Howell last season.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF OLD BRIDGE: