Sayreville, Middlesex square off Tuesday as Bombers, Blue Jays look to make inroads in highly competitive GMC White

The GMC Red Division is very good, and its winner will likely get the top seed in the GMC Tournament, which starts in just a couple of weeks. But the GMC White Division is a knock-down, drag-out battle, too, every time their teams take the field.

And you can expect much of the same on Tuesday afternoon when Sayreville (56-6) meets Middlesex (9-4) in a battle of two middle-of-the-pack teams in the White Division.

It’s a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Pregame is at 3:45; click here to listen.

The Bombers – who are 4-6 in the White and in 5th place, right behind the fourth-place Blue Jays (6-4) – snapped a three-game skid Sunday evening with a late game against Matawan at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. They won 11-8 in what was their second biggest offensive outburst of the season.

That’s a welcome sight for second-year head coach Tim Ballard, whose team is hitting just .200 through 12 games. And they’ve had many this year – some wins, some losses – that have been too close for comfort. On a mid-April three-game win streak, they beat Perth Amboy 4-3 and 4-2, then edged Jackson Liberty out of the Shore Conference, 5-4.

But they’ve also lost some close ones: 3-2 to North Brunswick, 2-0 to Spotswood, and a 4-2 decision at the hands of first-place St. Thomas Aquinas.

As for Middlesex, they’ve been hitting the ball well. The Jays – under first-year head coach Blaze Ianetti, who had been an assistant under previous coach Justin Nastasi – have a .340 team batting average and have scored almost twice as many runs (91) in 13 games as the Bombers have in a dozen (48).

They’ve also gotten really good pitching, with a team ERA of just 1.61, and only one pitcher who’s thrown at least nine innings this year with an ERA over three.

It’s also a series that’s been very even of late. Middlesex won three straight coming out of the missed COVID season of 2020, then split a pair in 2023 before Sayreville won both meetings last year, 4-3 and 7-2.

Click below for pregame interviews with both head coaches: