St. Joseph in GMC Tournament final again in first season under new head coach Dennis McCaffery

The names may change, but in the end, the results are the same for the St. Joseph of Metuchen baseball team.

For the fourth time in the last four seasons, the Falcons are back in the county finals, looking for their third championship since the COVID interruption of 2020.

Mike Murray was the head coach who guided them to those championships – along with his first in 2016, his second season – but he stepped down in January, and Dennis McCaffery stepped in after retiring from Cranford after last season, where he had won over 500 games.

There’s always an adjustment period with a new head coach, and with a great deal of parity in the GMC Red Division this season, the Falcons were 4-5 after their first nine games. But since then, they have won ten of eleven games, and their last nine, heading into Saturday’s Jim Muldowney GMC Championship Tournament final against Edison. It’s a battle of the five seed (St. Joe’s) against the 11-seed, both from the Red Division, showing how topsy-turvy it’s been all year.

You can heard that game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with first pitch at 2 pm from Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick. Pregame starts at 1:35, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call. Click here to listen.

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Perhaps even more impressively, St. Joe’s has won its last five games – including three in the GMCT – in their final at bat. That includes 1-0 wins in eight innings against Sayreville in the first round, in nine over Metuchen in the quarterfinals, and 4-3 over Spotswood on JP Zayle’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

Before the GMCT, they scored three in the bottom of the seventh to walkoff Bridgewater-Raritan, 5-4. They also beat Westfield Tuesday in a non-conference game, 2-1, going ahead in their final at bat in the top of the eighth, and holding off the Blue Devils for the victory.

Click below to hear St. Joseph head coach Dennis McCaffery talk about the season and Saturday’s GMC Tournament final against Edison with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: