First-year skipper, Middlesex alum Blaze Iannetti named Central Jersey Sports Radio 2025 GMC Coach of the Year

One could look at the Middlesex roster of very talented baseball players, the support athletics gets from its administration, and the well-developed feeder program called the Middlesex Little League and see why the high school baseball team has had such success over the years.

The names may change, but the results, of late, have stayed the same. Five state Group 1 titles – not just sectional titles – since 2013, most of any school in that stretch other than Gloucester Catholic

But this year was extra special in Middlesex.

Under Justin Nastasi, the Blue Jays won titles in five of his nine seasons, from 2015 through 2021. But they had not won in three seasons prior to this one, falling to Point Pleasant Beach – the team they’d seem to beat every year – in back-to-back Central Jersey Group 1 finals, then again last year in the sectional semis.

Nastasi stepped down in the off-season, and up stepped Blaze Iannetti, a Middlesex alum who played for current AD Mike O’Donnell, and coached with Nastasi through most of that run. It seemed like a natural fit.

And it paid off dividends.

Though they didn’t win the GMC White Division title, they reached the semifinals of the Jim Muldowney GMC Championship tournament, falling 3-0 to Edison. And in the state tournament, their wheelhouse for the last decade or so, they went all the way.

Middlesex celebrates with the NJSIAA Group 1 championship trophy after a 3-1 win over Midland Park at the Wood-Ridge Athletic Complex on June 16, 2025. Head coach Blaze Iannetti is holding the trophy. (Photo: Alec Crouthamel)

Again, they beat Point Pleasant Beach in the CJ1 title game – four of their last six titles have come against the Garnet Gulls – and after a state semifinal walk-off at home against Schalick, they beat Midland Park Monday, 3-2, for the state Group 1 championship.

Managing a small school roster isn’t easy, especially when it comes to pitching. But Iannetti was a master this year, counting on his two stud arms in junior Dominic Long (the CJSR GMC Player of the Year) and sophomore Chris Kozak. (It’s also no surprise both had brothers on the 2021 team that won the Group 1 state championship.)

Click below to hear Middlesex head coach and 2025 Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Coach of the Year Blaze Iannetti talk about the season with Mike Pavlichko: