It’s all GMC White matchups on Field 2 in Wednesday’s GMC Tournament quarterfinals

There are four games being played at North Brunswick Community Park Wednesday, home of the Grater Middlesex County Tournament quarterfinals. Times and field assignments are based on seeds.

The two highest seeds remaining play the night games. the others play at 4 pm. And of them, the highest-seeded team goes on Field 1.

The way it worked out, two all-GMC Red Division games will be on Field 1, and two all-GMC White Division games will be on Field 2.

And not that anyone else is keeping track, but the two White Division games? They’re matchups we had earlier this season on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

We brought you Middlesex at Edison on April 18th, and Sayreville at Woodbridge on April 6th. And both were good, close games.

The Barrons beat the Bombers 4-2 on the first Saturday of the season, after most of the week’s games were wiped out by rain. And the Eagles beat the Blue Jays 4-0 in a game where Jaxon Appelman had a no-hitter broken up with two out in the seventh on a comebacker up the middle that ended up being a single to centerfield in a game.

Two close games, and the quarterfinals should be no different.

(5) Edison (12-6) vs. (13) Middlesex (7-12), 4 pm

The Blue Jays may be the darling of the GMC Tournament so far. They had to win a play-in game to get to Monday’s Round of 16, and beat 20th-seed Metuchen 8-0. On Monday, they nickeled-and-dimed fourth-seed Spotswood to death, beating the Chargers 8-0 and handing them just their second loss of the season.

It’s a young squad for head coach Justin Nastasi, but he has them believing in themselves late in the season. For Wednesday, he’ll likely have to decide between freshman Dominic Long (1-3, 4.06 ERA) or junior Owen Reynolds (0-2, 6.49) on the mound, while Edison is expected to start soph Robert Roma, who’s 3-2 with a 2.33 earned run average.

At the plate, like on the mound, Jaxon Appelman’s is a big part of Edison’s success. The Coastal Carolina-bound senior hitting an eye-popping .420 with five home runs and ten runs batted in. In Monday’s first round, Appelman’s one-out, fifth-inning triple drove in Dom Innocenti – who led off the inning with his second three-bagger of the game – with what would be the game-winning run. Junior Anthony Calantoni – who’s also the football team’s quarterback – is hitting .446 to lead the team.

Middlesex has struggled generally at the plate this year, hitting just .246 on the season, but Reynolds is hitting .404 on the year to lead the team, and freshman Luke Jones is hitting .290 with seven RBIs. The Blue Jays will need to be aggressive against Roma, who has a 2-1 strikeout to-walk ratio, and put the ball in play.

Middlesex was swept both games by Edison this year. After the Appelman near-no-no on April 18th, the Eagles won a 9-2 game at Mountainview Park.

FIRST ROUND RECAPS:

• Appelman goes the distance, knocks in go-ahead run to send Edison to GMCT quarters with 2-1 win over Piscataway
• Upsets highlight GMC Tournament Round of 16, as Middlesex stuns Spotswood, North Brunswick edges Monroe on Anderson no-hitter, Sayreville tops Colonia on Schlaline’s gem

(2) Woodbridge (15-4) vs. (10) Sayreville (9-7), 7 pm

Tim Ballard is no stranger to upsets. The Sayreville coach – now in his first year at his alma mater, having taken over for his mentor, Mike Novak – had his share at JFK, his previous coaching stop. In the 2021 GMC Tournament, his 16th-seeded Mustangs knocked off top-seed Monroe in the opening round. The following year, as the 15th seed in the Central Jersey Group 4 state playoffs, they knocked off second-seed Brick Memorial in the first round.

While the Bombers are no 16th-seed, they did pull of an opening round upset, knocking off the seventh-seed and fellow GMC White opponent Sayreville, 1-0, on a great game from Thomas Schlaline, who pitched a complete-game two-hitter and knocked in the game’s only run. The Barrons were 9-2 winners over 18th-seed South River in Monday’s first round.

While this year’s GMCT has been considered wide open, Woodbridge would have been one of the favorites in the preseason – returning a solid, veteran core – and they have not disappointed this year. Their losses came to Middlesex – one which looks a lot better now – eventual top-seed Plainfield, and Monroe, as well as a non-conference loss to Brearley yesterday that wound up being somewhat of a throwaway game, since head coach Mike Monaco’s job is to save pitching for today.

Drew Lukachyk (4-2, 1.73 ERA) will get the nod on the mound today against the Bombers, who will likely go with senior Moe Hedderman (2-2, 3.30 ERA) or sophomore Logan Kaufman (4-1, 2.96). Kaufman is more

Lukachyk – like his brother Brett, who’s now at Middlesex College – is an offensive star for the Barrons, too. He’s hitting a team-best .475 with 16 runs batted in, while sophomore Xavier Diaz is hitting .348 with a team-best 18 runs batted in. And Woodbridge has hit 11 home runs on the year, more than any of the other seven teams still alive in the GMCT.

Sayreville is hitting .268 as a team, almost 40 points lower than Woodbridge (.305), and has scored 50 fewer runs in 16 games than the Barrons have in 19. Senior Jake Romanello leads the Bombers in hitting at .385, while junior catcher Michael Robinson has knocked in a team-best 16 runs. Hedderman, who also plays first base, has 12 RBIs.

Woodbridge won both matchups this season, the 4-2 game on April 6th heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, and the rematch the following Tuesday, 9-1.

FIRST ROUND RECAPS:

• Top three seeds in GMCT advance to quarterfinals, as South Plainfield, Woodbridge and Old Brigde pick up wins
• Upsets highlight GMC Tournament Round of 16, as Middlesex stuns Spotswood, North Brunswick edges Monroe on Anderson no-hitter, Sayreville tops Colonia on Schlaline’s gem