Middlesex players (and students) crowd Dalton Michael after his pinch-hit single won the Group 1 semifinal against Schalick in 8 innings on June 9, 2025 at Mountainview Park in Middlesex. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
There has been nothing particularly spectacular this season about the Middlesex High School baseball team. And that’s a compliment.
There is no feared hitter batting over the .500 mark with eight home runs. There’s no pitcher with 100 strikeouts and a blazing fastball who’s going to a major Division 1 program.
Just, good, solid, consistent baseball players. Baseball players who have won 16 of their last 17 games and are a win away from their seventh state championship. Their current six trophies are more than any other GMC school – and even any other Skyland Conference school, for that matter, as well.
Granted, Dominic Long is 11-0 with a 1.31 ERA, and he will be expected to get the start Saturday against Midland Park (21-8-1) when the Blue Jays (22-5) face them in the NJSIAA Group 1 championship game at 1 pm at Bob DeMeo Field at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton.
Long gave Middlesex just what it needed Monday in the Group 1 semifinals against Schalick. Head coach Blaze Iannetti went to him in the eighth after starter Chris Kozak issued a four-pitch, one-out walk, and he got two strikeouts sandwiched around a two-out single to keep the game tied 3-3, giving the Jays a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning, which they did, on an RBI single by regular pinch-hitter Dalton Michael.
Long and Kozak have been awesome this year. Long hasn’t lost a game, while Kozak is 6-4 but with an even lower 0.84 ERA. They’ve been the only two pitchers to start in the state tournament – with Michael the only other pitcher who’s made an appearance, getting in two innings of work – combining to go 5-0 with a combined 0.90 earned run average.
In their five state tournament wins, Middlesex has pitched two shutouts, two one-run games, and the only time they gave up more was in their 4-3 win over Schalick.
And they’re tearing it up at the plate, too. Dalton Michael is 2-for-3 on pinch-hitting duty with three runs batted in, including a double and a single. First baseman Owen Reynolds is hitting .545, and Dom Parenti – who hit his second home run of the season Monday in the Group 1 semis, leading off the bottom of the first – has seven runs batted in, as does Dylan Ianiero.
Click below to hear Middlesex head coach Blaze Iannetti talk about the season and the Group 1 final against Midland Park with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
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