Former North Brunswick, Rutgers standout pitcher Zack Konstantinovsky picked in MLB Draft by Washington Nationals
Zack Konstantinovsky – a two-time Central Jersey Sports Radio Player of the Year at North Brunswick and standout at Rutgers – has been selected in the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals. “Zack K,” as he’s often called, was dominant on the mound as a Raider. In ten starts his senior season, he give up just eight runs, five earned, and fanned 88 – but he hit .469 and hit eight home runs. He was even more overpowering his junior year, striking out 120 hitters while walking just two, and allowing only seven earned runs in 67…
Former Franklin, Rutgers standout Peyton Bonds picked by San Francisco in third round of MLB Draft; will other area players be chosen?
With the 90th pick overall, in the third round of the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft, the San Francisco Giants take… … former Franklin standout and Rutgers star Peyton Bonds. A junior this past season, Bonds – who is Barry Bonds’ nephew and the godson of Bobby Bonds – hit .352 with 29 RBIs and six home runs, while also stealing 13 bases. He hit eight doubles and scored 31 runs. The 12th Scarlet Knight to be drafted in the last five seasons under head coach Steve Owens, he’s also the fourth to be taken by the Giants all-time. The…
JFK’s Grant Lorentzen proves you can do it all, and be very good at it, too
Hitting a major milestone in any high school sport is a big deal. Often, the game will stop, the ball will come out of play, and there are balloons and photo ops, then the game goes on. For Grant Lorentzen, who’s just graduated from JFK in Iselin last week, he hit key milestones in not just one, nor two, but three high school sports. In an era where more and more student-athletes are specializing – playing just one sport, and then training the rest of the year in that sport – Lorentzen is a throwback, but also an example. Lorentzen…
As Blackwell steps down from Ridge, here are the winningest coaches in the GMC, Somerset County, and who will move into the top ten
Ridge baseball coach Tom Blackwell told his players last week, and announced publicly Tuesday that he was stepping down as the Red Devils’ skipper, with just a couple of years left before he completely retires from teaching. Blackwell will hang ’em up as one of the winningest active coaches in the Central Jersey Sports Radio Coverage area, entering and finishing the year in the top ten. Here’s a look at the rest of the group in the Greater Middlesex Conference and Somerset County. We’re counting all wins, even at other, out-of-area schools, as long as those coaches are still in…
Woodbridge’s Gavin Slicner is Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Player of the Year after star-studded senior season
Sometimes in high school baseball, you see a stat that makes you rub your eyes to make sure you read it right. Woodbridge shortstop Gavin Slicner could’ve wrote a whole book of those in his senior year. The Barrons’ leadoff batter put up a stellar senior campaign and is the winner of the 2026 Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Player of the Year. Slicner had already put up a solid junior campaign, but came into his senior year with a determination to build and get even better for his follow-up. The shortstop put up eye-popping offensive numbers as a senior,…
Ridge seniors Callanan, Nicholson and head coach Tom Blackwell talk CJSR Team of the Year honors, as veteran skipper also announces retirement
What a whirlwind year for the Ridge Red Devils baseball team. They began the year 11-1, with an Opening Day win at West Morris bringing the program its 1,000th victory all-time. Then injuries hit, and they lost five straight in late April. After getting knocked out of the Somerset County Tournament in the semifinals by eventual champion Watchung Hills, they regrouped and rebounded to beat the Warriors in the NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 championship game. They would fall in the state semifinals, 8-7, on a walk-off home run in extra innings at Ridgewood, but earn the final No. 1…
Immaculata lefty Ryan Auten takes a big senior leap, and is 2026 CJSR Somerset County Player of the Year
Ryan Auten was already on a solid pace after his junior season. The tall lefty sported a 2.80 ERA in 40 innings, with 69 strikeouts and 32 walks in his first season as a Spartan, after transferring in from Delaware Valley. But Auten and his coaches knew there was still room to get even better. The Wake Forest-bound southpaw took all of that room and then some, closing out his high school career with a dominant senior campaign, and has been named Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Somerset County Player of the Year. COMING TUESDAY: Central Jersey Sports Radio’s GMC Player…
Photo Gallery: We stopped by the new home of the NJSIAA state baseball finals at Rutgers, and all seemed to be having a good time
Free parking, free admission, a day in the sun with seat-back chairs, or a chance to spread out on a blanket on the grassy hill in left field. That pretty much summed up a beautiful (if not on the warm side) Sunday afternoon at Rutgers University’s Bainton Field in Piscataway, where the NJSIAA held its four public state championship games, just a few days after crowning the Non-Public champions on Wednesday night. Back when this reporter was calling Rutgers baseball games on student radio station WRSU 88.7 FM in New Brunswick, the field – not yet named Bainton – was…
Warriors move up, win SCT, and Watchung Hills’ Joe Tremarco is CJSR Somerset County Coach of the Year
Everyone knows the challenge of playing in the Skyland Conference Delaware Division. You don’t have to be the first place team to make a deep run in the county or state tournaments, with Exhibit A being Bridgewater-Raritan. And you don’t need to have won the division to win a postseason tournament either. Not only did Watchung Hills finish second in the division – and beat top-seed and Delaware champ Immaculata in the county final – but they did it after moving up following a first-place finish in the Raritan Division (7-1) in 2025. And yet, they went 7-3 in the…
With historic season, Piscataway Magnet’s Greg Sampson is Central Jersey Sports Radio’s GMC Coach of the Year
The last time the Piscataway Magnet baseball team won a state tournament game, Ronald Reagan was President, and filling up your Toyota Corolla would cost you about ten bucks and some change. And forget the fact that none of the current Raiders hadn’t been born yet; their parents were probably still in school at the time. All that changed in 2026, when the Raiders exploded out of the gate to win their first 18 games of the season, won a county tournament game, not one but two state games in the Central Jersey Group 1 playoffs, and finish their best…
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