Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament Quarterfinal Preview: Eight teams seek trip to Saturday’s semis in wide open playoff

Some years, you can have a pretty good idea who’s a favorite to win the county tournament. Others it’s wide open.

This year may be as wide open as any other in the Greater Middlesex Conference, following a first round Monday that saw four extra-inning games, five one-run games, two decided by just two runs, and four “upsets.”

We put upsets in quotes there because they might not really be. In a league where no one has been utterly dominant, and teams have beaten up on each other, there’s much parity in the GMC, and that has continued into the Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament.

The event hits the quarterfinals – the round of eight – Wednesday at North Brunswick Community Park, but only if the weather cooperates. And it’s not just a matter of whether it will be raining at game time, it’s more about how much rain fell Tuesday, and how much more will on Wednesday, and whether the natural grass fields can take all that water.

The GMC has said if the games can’t be played Wednesday, they would shoot for Thursday at Community Park, and if that’s not feasible, games would go to higher seeds, or fields with turf. That would leave Spotswood hosting, as the high seed, as they have turf, but could leave St. Joseph of Metuchen and St. Thomas Aquinas – both higher seeds, but both with grass fields – playing on the road at Metuchen and Edison, respectively, both of whom have turf. Middlesex and South Plainfield both have grass, and could host, or find another school at which to play.

Regardless, we know the matchups, and at some point, they will play, with the winners advancing to Saturday (maybe – the weekend weather is another story) and the semifinals at East Brunswick Magnet School. So, scroll through for our preview of the quarterfinals.

(8) Spotswood (13-8) vs. (16) South River (14-5)
4 pm on Field 2 (Listen Live on CJSR)
Announcers: Dom Savino and Dylan Allen

This is an old-fashioned rivalry here, as Spotswood students used to attend South River High School up until Spotswood opened its own building in 1976. Yes, it’s been almost 50 years, but the rivalry is still strong.

These are two of the veteran mentors in Middlesex County. Mike Lepore Jr. of the Rams is now in his 28th season, while Glenny Fredricks of the Chargers is in his 21st, and both coaches are over the 300-win mark. In fact, both cracked that milestone in 2024, Fredericks first, in a 10-6 win over Paulsboro on April 19th of last year, then Lepore, in a 12-1 win over Princeton on May 21st.

But this one isn’t about the coaches. It’s about some really good baseball players.

Spotswood won’t throw senior Carter Cumiskey – their ace who beat Monroe back on Monday in the opening round, but he can do plenty of damage at the plate. On a team hitting .271 as a group, he’s at .425 with 16 RBIs and three homers. Fellow senior Will Buchan is hitting .338, second on the team, but leads the Chargers with 17 runs batted in and four home runs.

On the other side, South River has an ace pitcher who can blast the ball as well. While Cumiskey is going to Seton Hall, senior Julius Rosado will be headed to Rutgers in the fall. The senior, like Cumiskey, is also an excellent shortstop. That’s where he’ll play for Steve Owens, and he’s been relied upon a bit less this year, with James Zsorey, getting the workload of a No. 1 starter. He gave up one run in 8 2/3 innings Monday in the Rams’ 2-1, nine-inning win over top-seed Woodbridge Monday, the first team to knock off a No. 1 seed in the first round of the GMCs since JFK upset top-seed Monroe in in 2021.

Back to Rosado’s offensive prowess, he’s hitting close to .500 on the year: .474 with 25 RBIs – tied for the team lead with Zsorey – while hitting three home runs, tied with junior Hunter Krainski. He also leads the team in extra base hits, with 15, including eight doubles and four triples. What’s ironic is that this isn’t even his best year at the plate. He hit .594 last season – 120 points higher – and is a career .544 hitter.

South River has won six straight games, their best stretch of the season, including a play-in round game last Saturday, a 13-1 win over South Brunswick. Spotswood has won nine of its last 12, with their most recent defeats coming by a single run – 1-0 at Florence, 2-1 at Allentown – prior to GMC Tournament play.

Spotswood, meanwhile, has won six straight against South River, the Rams’ last won in 2021, sweeping the season series. Ironically, the two were scheduled to play Thursday in a regular season crossover. If Wednesday gets rained out, they’ll still play on Thursday, but it’ll be their GMCT game.

Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches:

(3) St. Thomas Aquinas (13-6) vs. (11) Edison (11-9)
7 pm on Field 2 (Listen Live on CJSR)
Announcers: Dom Savino and Dylan Allen

This one has two of the three high schools based in Edison, how can you go wrong here? St. Thomas Aquinas is the GMC White Division champion, and last year won the Non-Public North B title, falling in the state Group B championship game to powerhouse Gloucester Catholic. This year, along with Spotswood, they moved up to the White, and have had great success.

But the Trojans almost didn’t get here. They trailed 14-seed North Plainfield 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh in Monday’s first round, but won it in walk-off fashion with a pair of bases loaded walks. Hitting .302 as a team, they’re led by senior Jack Valenzuela at .391, while fellow senior Donovan Epps is among six players with at least ten RBIs; he has 16 to lead the team. Louis Rizzolo also is a factor offensively, leading the team in runs scored with 23, doubles with 16, and walks with 17, while also swiping a team-best ten stolen bases.

Edison is led by Robert Roma, who’s hitting .375 with a team-best 17 RBIs, seven doubles and 18 walks. He’s an ace pitcher, but right up there with him is Connor Murphy, though even he won’t get the start in the quarters. That’s going to go to Braydon Roma – Robert’s younger brother, a freshman – who is 1-4 with a 3.80 ERA, but just hasn’t gotten much run support. Of the five games he’s pitched that Edison has lost, three of those games saw the Eagles score two or fewer runs, and one of those was a shutout at Woodbridge.

Edison has won five straight coming in, including a 2-1 win in 12 innings at sixth-seed Old Bridge in Monday’s first round, as the elder Roma got the game-winning hit. St. Thomas lost to Old Bridge, 8-5, in their last game before the GMCs, but went on a seven-game win streak over an eleven-day span in mid- to late-April.

These two don’t regularly play each other, although the Trojans did play up twice to the GMC Red this year, and – in addition to the loss to Old Bridge last Thursday – they also fell 13-11 to East Brunswick two Friday’s ago

Click below to hear pregame interviews with both head coaches:

(5) St. Joseph-Metuchen (11-6) vs. (13) Metuchen (15-6)
4 pm on Field 1 (Follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)

After a down year last season and just seven wins, new head coach Dennis McCaffery – who came over from Cranford after stepping down there at the end of last season – has the Falcons back on track. The might be playing their best baseball of the year, on their longest winning streak of 2025, now at five games heading into the quarterfinals. They needed nine innings to get past 12-seed Sayreville on Monday in the first round, on an RBI single by Walter Christian to walk it off.

The Falcons are a good-hitting team, batting .331 on the year, with three hitting over .400 this season. Junior Kris Almanzar leads the pack at .455, while senior Bobby Christensen is at .400 with 15 runs batted in. Luke Palermo is hitting .423, and has knocked in 18 runs, while senior JP Zayle has a team-high 19 RBIs and is hitting .447 on the year.

The pitching staff has a 3.39 ERA, so Joe’s is getting the job done on both ends, and McCaffery will have a number of options against the Bulldogs.

As for Metuchen, they had lost three straight heading into the GMCT. While that’s certainly not ideal, they won two games in the tourney to get here, beating 20-seed South Amboy 13-0 in a ten-run rule play-in game, then knocking off fourth-seed East Brunswick out of the Red, 7-6 in nine innings on Monday in the first round.

And the Bulldogs can hit and pitch, too. Battig .343 asa a team, junior Simon Rosal is hitting .457 with 13 runs batted in, and fellow junior Matt Jelleme is hitting .456 with 18 RBIs. As a team, with 167 runs scored, they’re one of just two Blue Division teams who’ve scored more than 100, so they can put up some runs. On the mound, they have an ERA well under three, at 2.55 for the team, with four pitchers having ERAs below that mark.

They’re 1-2 against the Red this year, with losses to Edison and Monroe besides Monday’s win over East Brunswick, which finished higher than both the Eagles and Falcons in the division. Go figure?

These two teams rarely play each other, with Metuchen being a Group 2 and Joe’s being a large school, but they have met twice in the last 13 years, with the Falcons winning both: 12-2 in the GMCT second round in 2023, and 4-3 in the GMCT first round in 2012.

(2) South Plainfield (13-8) vs. (11) Middlesex (14-4)
7 pm on Field 1 (Follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)

This might be one of the best games of the day. Despite the double-digit seed, Middlesex appears to be again in the mold of its late 2010s and 2021 team, the latter of which won Central Jersey Group 1 and the Group 1 championship, winning all of its final three games in its final at bat, including the Group semi over Woodstown on a walk-off grand slam by Bobby Ulmer, and in 13 innings in the state final against New Providence.

And if you’re still not convinced, last week, the Blue Jays went up to Delbarton to face the No. 7 team in the state, and came away with a 5-3 win. Impressed now?

They scrap, and that was they way they won their first-round game, knocking off the 7-seed Colonia. (Lucky 7s?) Against the Patriots, they manufactured runs. Their first came on a single to right that Dylan Ianiero tried to extend to a double, and though he was out, in the confusion, it allowed Dom Parenti to score after initially holding on third. And in the sixth, after Parenti walked to lead off the inning, he took advantage on a miscue in centerfield and scored all the way from first on what turned out to be an Ianiero single, and a two-base error.

But it’s the pitching that may be most impressive. The team ERA is 1.68, led by Chris Kozak – whose older brother, Aiden, played on the 2021 title team. He’s got an ERA of just 0.89, and then there’s sophomore Dom Long at 1.37 – with 39 Ks to 19 walks – who’s picked up the second most innings on the team behind Kozak.

South Plainfield was the Red Division champ last year, and the top seed in the GMCT, but lost in the finals to Old Bridge. This year, they finished second to Woodbridge, but beat the Barrons twice in the regular season.

The Tigers are hitting a respectable .265 on the year, with the highlight being Dom Massaro, a junior batting .405 on the season with one of the team’s two home runs – senior Dave Butrico has the other – and 14 RBIs. Aiden McCarthy – also an excellent pitcher – has a team-high 20 RBIs, while also leading the Tigers with a whopping 21 walks. And these guys steal bases, very aggressive on the base paths; senior Nick Irizarry has 30 on a team that has 77 swipes. (Middlesex, which also is aggressive on the bases, has 43 by comparison.)

And though the team ERA is a solid 3.15, the guys who’ve thrown the bulk of the innings are well under three. Mike Castagna, Jayden Jiminez, McCarthy and Kevin Penny all give head coach Scott Gleichenhaus piece of mind when they take the mound.

South Plainfield had lost three straight heading into the GMC before an 11-0 first round win over 15-seed Perth Amboy (in 5 innings), while Middlesex is red hot, on an eight-game winning streak. Besides the stunner over Delbarton, they also beat 10-10 North Hunterdon out of the Skyland Conference’s Delaware Division, among the best in the state, on Senior Night last week at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater. The Lions are scheduled to play Hunterdon Central Wednesday in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament final.

Though not often in the same division, the two play fairly frequently. South Plainfield has won six straight against Middlesex, dating back to 2015. Middlesex last won in 2013, and they last met in the GMC Quarterfinals in 2012. The Blue Jays – the third-seed – took that meeting, 5-0, and went on to win the county championship, beating No. 1 seed Sayreville 10-4 in the final.