Despite jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, East Brunswick Magnet had to rally late, scoring 12 runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings to beat New Brunswick, 17-10, and sweep a two-game series from the Zebras in GMC Blue Division action.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart call all the play-by-play live from Ray Cipperly Field at East Brunswick Magnet School in East Brunswick on April 7, 2026.
On a bright, sunny, but turning blustery cold day in the shadows of the dying Brunswick Square Mall and its big blue water tower, East Brunswick Magnet completed a two-game series sweep of New Brunswick Tuesday, with a 17-10 home in in GMC Gold Division action heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
That was the main story, but this one? Well, it had all the components of the wildest game you’ve ever seen.
There were multiple dropped balls on a day with 15-to-20 mile per hour winds, and a stark sun still fairly low in the sky as is typical of early April. New Brunswick arrived just ten minutes before the scheduled first pitch, which officially was thrown at 4:23 pm. There was a 4-6-3 double play where the second baseman booted the ball, but right to the shortstop who was standing on the bag to get to first out. And ground balls died a quick death on the choppy early-season infield grass – which sprouts right up after Spring rain.
Oh, and there were a combined 27 runs scored between the two teams in a game which, had it gone on much longer, might have been called due to darkness. By the time Dariel Rodriguez struck out swinging to end the ballgame at 7:22 pm, the sun had already been below the tree line on the other side of Summerhill Road for a good five to ten minutes.
And yet, this one could have been over early.
East Brunswick Magnet, coming off a 17-4 win Monday in New Brunswick – where they led 13-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth before the Zebras forced a sixth-inning with a grand slam by Jose Abreu, only to fall 17-4 in six – picked up right where it left off less than 24 hours prior, scoring four runs off New Brunswick starter Jacob Henderson.
The Zebras – whose lineup is half freshman coming off a season where they beat the Tigers in the GMC Invitational title game – could have folded then. They could have sulked and packed it in, turning the page to Wednesday’s game against neighboring North Brunswick.
But they didn’t. They came back with three in the second to cut the deficit to one. Then, after Magnet added a run in the third, tied the game 5-5 with two runs in the fourth. And they seemed to blow it open with four runs in the top of the fifth to go ahead 9-5.
But that’s when East Brunswick Magnet had enough, and did all the damage they needed to. They sent eleven men to the plate in the fifth, and scored seven runs to take a 12-9 lead. Then did the same in the sixth scoring five runs to take a 17-9 lead.
Highlights for the Tigers? Starting pitcher Joshua Carreras – though the sophomore didn’t get the win – pitched four inning, allowing just three hits, five runs – but only two earned – and struck out seven. But he had an even better day at the plate, scoring twice, and hitting a bases-clearing three-RBI triple in the fifth to give his team the lead, for good.
There was also second-baseman Braeden Cullen, who had a double and an RBI in the first innings, scored three times, and had an RBI sac fly to center in the decisive fifth inning.
And all nine positions in the batting order scored; the only starter not to cross the plate was catcher Andrew Teleposky, and only because he had a courtesy runner. But he still reached base five times.
In the end, the win went to Jack Clements in relief, who pitched two and two-thirds innings, gave up one hit, one unearned run, and struck out seven; it was his first victory of the season. Misael Dura took the loss for New Brunswick, allowing seven runs in just an inning-and-a-third, but wasn’t helped by the defense behind him; only four of those runs were earned.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart with East Brunswick Magnet head coach Sean Radu and sophomore pitcher Joshua Carreras, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
After a 20-6 record last season and a trip to the GMC’s Ray Cipperly Invitational Final, East Brunswick Magnet expected to start off 2026 on a tear. Not only did the Tigers have the taste of success on their tongues, but they also returned a majority of their roster, graduating just four seniors.Â
Despite this, East Brunswick Magnet dropped its first two games of the season to red-hot Carteret (5-0), a one-run loss to open the season and a six-run defeat to follow. Charlie Misura pitched a complete game for the Tigers in the opening loss, giving up just four hits and one walk, as the bats fell just short of securing a victory.Â
Fortunately for East Brunswick Magnet, the offense would come to life in Game Three of the young campaign, hanging 17 runs on New Brunswick Monday afternoon en route to a 17-4 road victory. Five different players recorded multiple hits for the Tigers, highlighted by a four-hit, three RBI day from Joshua Carreras.Â
The rematch comes less than 24 hours after Monday’s final out, at 4 pm Tuesday at Racy Cipperly Field, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart have the call, with pregame starting at 3:45. Click here to listen.
The all-around offensive outpouring Monday was a welcome sight for the Tigers, who are still trying to solidify a starting lineup early this year.
Through three games this season, head coach Sean Radu has seen a slew of different combinations in the infield, as well as three different players recording a start in right field.Â
With all the uncertainty surrounding the lineup and expectations for this season, one thing has become evident to coach Radu: new leaders must step up and lead the squad.Â
Two of the bigger losses the Tigers suffered impacted both the lineup and the rotation, with Tommy O’Neill and Nomar Carreras graduating.Â
O’Neill touted an impressive .370 batting average to go along with an equally impressive 1.40 ERA in his senior season. Carreras, on the other hand, hit .392 while pitching 36.1 innings, striking out 62 batters in the process.Â
Click below to hear East Brunswick Magnet head coach Sean Radu talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart about the 2026 season so far, and going for the series sweep Tuesday afternoon against New Brunswick:
Knowing you have a young team coming back that graduated a slew of seniors, it’s not always going to be smooth sailing.
But New Brunswick baseball head coach Nico Vargas is playing the long game, teaching the kids, instilling a sense of doing things the right way, with the assumption – often correct – that the wins will come.
It’s happened before.
The Zebras won four combined games in 2021 and 2022, then went 1-12 under Gino Maribella in 2023.
Enter Vargas, and New Brunswick added six more wins in Vargas’ first season, 2024, then went 15-3 last year en route to winning the Ray Cipperly GMC Invitational Tournament over East Brunswick Magnet.
The two rematched Monday, with the Tigers picking up a lopsided win, 17-4, and will play the second of the home-and-home Tuesday afternoon at 4 pm in East Brunswick, in a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart have the call with pregame at 3:45; click here to listen.
It’s those four runs from Monday’s game that Vargas is focused on, for a number of reasons.
Trailing 13-0 after four-and-a-half innings of play, the Zebras could have packed it in. Instead, they loaded the bases for one of their veterans, Jose Abreu, and all he did was hit a grand slam to extend the game at least one more inning.
Nevermind that East Brunswick Magnet got those four back in the top of the sixth, and won it by blanking the Zebras in the bottom of the inning. At this point, accentuate the positive, and hope the old adage that “hitting is contagious” holds true Tuesday afternoon.
It’ll help they’ll have the outstanding Jacob Henderson on the mound. He held Piscataway last week through five innings, taking a 2-1 lead into the sixth. A bloop, a walk and a home run opened the floodgates, and the Zebras took a 5-2 decision, but still, it was something off which New Brunswick can build.
Click below to hear New Brunswick baseball coach Nico Vargas talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about the 2026 season, and Tuesday’s matchup at East Brunswick Magnet:
With a dozen regular season games, plus coverage of the GMC and Somerset County Tournaments – as well as state tournament coverage to be announced at a later date – Central Jersey Sports Radio has announced its 2026 high school baseball broadcast schedule.
It all gets started next week, with our opener on Tuesday, March 31 at 4 pm between defending 2025 SCT champion Immaculata and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 4 winner Hillsborough. Then, after the calendar turns to April mid-week, we get state Group 1 champion Middlesex visiting Spotswood, on Thursday, April 2.
Coverage also includes two regular season games at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater – Montgomery vs Pingry on April 11, and Rutgers Prep against South Plainfield two Saturdays later – as well as the semifinals and finals of the Somerset County Tournament on April 18th and 20th, respectively.
The schedule includes three of last year’s SCT semifinalists, and all four of 2025’s GMC Tournament semifinalists, including a rematch of the title game between Edison and St. Joseph-Metuchen, and a rematch on the Invitational final between New Brunswick and East Brunswick Magnet.
Last year’s North 2, Group 3 winner South Plainfield also is on the schedule, as well as finalist Colonia.
New Brunswick won its first tournament championship of any kind since taking the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 1 title in 1985 and 1986, as the fifth-seeded Zebras beat second-seed East Brunswick Magnet, 5-3, to win the Ray Cipperly GMC Invitational.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the action, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio from Edison High School on May 23, 2025:
The New Brunswick baseball program had one title to its credit coming into Friday’s Ray Cipperly GMC Invitational Final against East Brunswick Magnet: the Central Jersey Group 1 pennant in 1986.
But other than that, they’d never been to a county final of any kind, not in the invitational – now in its sixth season – nor the main event,
But by 2:30 or so Friday afternoon, they had some more hardware to put in the trophy case..
The fifth-seeded Zebras used a three-run third inning and a strong start – after a shaky first – from Yeuri Garcia to beat second-seed East Brunswick Magnet 5-2, in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, and videostreamed live on our YouTube channel.
The Zebras staked Garcia to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, getting a two-RBI single by Ronaldy Peralta, who blooped a ball into no man’s land that fell to the red turf in short right field. But the Tigers got it right back in the bottom of the inning on a two-RBI double by Stephan Zoppolo.
After each team went out 1-2-3 in the second, New Brunswick would score the decisive run – and two more for insurance – in the third.
Kelvin Heuston led off with an infield hit, and after his older brother Devin struck out, DH Jacob Henderson laced a double to drive in what ultimately would be the winning run. Alex Rodriguez then reached on an E1, scoring another run, and a sac bunt by Peralta drove in Rodriguez to make it 5-2.
And Garcia, who had some control issues – he walked five, but also struck out five – settled in. He got in some jams, including a second and third situation with two out in the fifth, but got out of it.
He was pulled in the sixth with a 2-0 count on seven-hitter and opposing pitcher Anthony Bienvenue, but Henderson came in and needed just three pitches to strike him out, overpowering with a fastball that had more juice that what Garcia had been throwing for 6 2/3 innings.
And despite allowing two on in the seventh, he closed it out for the save.
New Brunswick improved to 15-2 with the win, while East Brunswick Magnet fell to 20-5. The two teams shared the Gold Division title this year, both 12-2 in the division.
The win went to Garcia, who’s now 4-1. Henderson got the save. Bienvenue took the loss for the Tigers to drop to 9-2.
Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
The finals of the Ray Cipperly GMC Invitational Tournament are set for this Friday, with 2023 champion East Brunswick Magnet set to take on New Brunswick, after both teams won their semifinal games on Monday afternoon.
(3) East Brunswick Magnet 8, (2) North Brunswick 7: The Tigers rallied from a 7-3 deficit heading into the seventh to win behind a five-spot in the top of the inning at North Brunswick. The Raiders (5-14)trailed 2-1 after 3 1/2 innings, but got two in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-2 lead, and after East Brunswick Magnet tied it at three in the top of the fifth, the Raiders added three in the fifth and one in the sixth to lead 7-3 after six on an RBI double by Connor Levine and two RBI singles that followed.
In the decisive top of the seventh, Tommy O’Neill – who ended up getting the win in relief – led off by reaching on an error on the centerfielder, getting all the way to second. Nomar Carreras struck out, and Jack Clements grounded out, bringing in O’Neill with the first run after he’d stolen third, cutting it to 7-4.
The rest of the rally all came with two outs. Braeden Cullen followed with a double, and Stephen Zappola reached on an infield hit that scored courtesy runner Braeden Chase Myers. Another double by Joshua Carreras moved Zappola to third, then a walk to Anthony Bienvenue loaded the bases. Andrew Teleposky got plunked to make it 7-6, Jedwin Crespo reached on an E6 to make it tie the game, and O’Neill walked to make it 8-7, before Nomar Carreras struck out looking to end the inning.
O’Neill – who got the last two outs in the sixth, threw a 1-2-3 seventh – with a strikeout, groundout and a strikeout – to preserve the win.
(5) New Brunswick 4, (1) JP Stevens 2: The Zebras (14-2) took a four-nothing lead with two runs apiece in the second and fourth, and held off the Hawks, who managed two runs in the sixth, but that was all.
In the second, Jose Encarnacion reached base on an E3, driving in Ronaldy Peralata, then Joel Ramos scored from third on a wild pitch with Jose Omar Abreu batting. The runs in the fourth came from Ramos on a dropped third strike, and another wild pitch that brought home Encarnacion.
JP Stevens got its runs in the sixth on a single by Collin Casey, and a balk.
First Pitch for Invitational Final moved up…
Baseball tournament director Mike O’Donnell told Central Jersey Sports Radio that Friday’s final – originally set for 4 pm at Edison High School, has been moved up to a noon start. O’Donnell says a number of schools – including East Brunswick Magnet and New Brunswick – had unused snow days, and this Friday happens to be one of the days both schools now have off. So, the game was moved earlier, likely a good idea also since the forecast calls for some rain Friday. And while it’s too early to tell, better to try and start early if there’s a window to play, than to sit around and wait for a later start that might not happen.
Central Jersey Sports Radio has tentative plans to broadcast the final, so long as it doesn’t conflict with the Somerset County Tournament final. That’s scheduled for Wednesday at 6 pm at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater, but the weather Wednesday – and Thursday, too – doesn’t look great, and the rain date is Friday. If that doesn’t happen, the SCT might not get to have it’s title game until next week, with backup site Diamond Nation in Flemington often full of youth baseball events on weekends. Their Memorial Day classic, featuring seven different age groups from 9U to 15U, is schedule for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
We’re exactly two weeks from the NJSIAA cutoff for the state playoffs – May 17th – and teams across the area continue to jockey for position in the standings. Here’s a closer look beyond the numbers at where teams stand and what their chances are, based on NJ.com’s official standings as of games played on May 2nd. For a full explanation of the new power point formula, click here.
Central Jersey Group 2: We’ve got three Central Jersey Sports Radio area teams in this section, and two moved up while one went down in the past week. Governor Livingston (14-0, 33.467 power points) is going to be the No. 1 seed, no doubt about that. The No. 2 ranked team in the state – behind only Gloucester Catholic – has a more than 11-point lead over No. 2 Delran. Neither they, nor anyone else, will get even close to the Highlanders.
The highest area team is South River, which went since our last update and dropped one place to No. 7. At 9-5, they have 19.67 power points, and we think could finish as high as No. 3 if they can finish strong; just 1.186 points behind third-place Robbinsville. Then again, four teams behind them all are are at 19 power points or higher, so a few slip-ups and they could easily fall out of the top eight, and lose even one first round home game. But right behind them is East Brunswick Magnet (15-2, 19.631). The Tigers – who have won five straight – went from tenth place to No. 8. But like the Rams, they could just as easily pull into the top four as they could slip out of the top eight.
Spotswood (10-6, 17.787) also rose, edging up from 15 to 14 on the strength of a 3-1 week, and boosted by a win over Colonia Thursday. As long as the Chargers maintain, they should make the playoffs. We think there are no more than 17 teams with a shot in this section, and it’s highly unlikely all three teams behind Spotswood would catch them.
North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2: Passaic Valley (11-5, 22.511) remains in first, but has an even smaller lead now over second-place West Essex (9-4, 21.984). The only area team we have here is Bernards (7-8, 16.159), and the Mountaineers did themselves a big favor by going 3-1 since our last update, improving from 4-7 to 7-8. That moves them up two spots to tenth place this week, 2.62 points out of the top eight. That may be a stretch, but a couple more weeks like they had this past week could do it.
Next time you take a look at league standings in baseball, note that you’ll see wins, losses, win percentages, division records, and runs for and against.
One thing you won’t see: style points.
Good thing for East Brunswick Magnet, which saw a five-run lead nearly evaporate in the bottom of the seventh at Columbia Park in Dunellen Wednesday, but hung on for a 13-12 win to keep them in first place in the Greater Middlesex Conference Gold Division.
There were some good hard hits – even an Anthony Bienvenue solo homer to lead off the third for the Tigers – but it was hardly a slugfest. EB Magnet benefitted from four Dunellen errors, and nine walks issued by Destroyer pitchers.
It was back-and-forth early on. The Tigers got a leadoff double from Tommy O’Neill and a walk from Nomar Carreras, with both getting driven in on a Stephen Zappola double two batters later. But Dunellen got back four in the home half, on two hits and two walks. One came in on a double-steal of second and home.
East Brunswick Magnet got four back in the top of the second to take a 6-4 lead – with only one hit in the frame – but Dunellen answered right back with three in the bottom of the second, to take a 7-6 lead after two.
The Tigers continued to score, while Carreras – the starting pitcher – settled in. After giving up seven runs on five hits in the first two innings, he struck out the side in the third, got out of a jam that could have been worse in the fourth, allowing just one run, and faced four batters in the fifth, his final inning. The final out came with a runner at third, with a wild pitch that brought him home, except the hitter, Ryan Hutchins, was called out for batters’ interference. The home plate umpire said he hadn’t cleared enough room for the play to be made.
The Tigers for two in the third, one in the fourth, and two more in the fifth and sixth to take a 13-8 lead heading into the seventh, where they were held scoreless for the first time all day.
In the bottom of the inning is where it got interesting. Jack Clements came on to close it out and fanned the first two hitters. No. 9 hitter Jackson Portik reached on an E4, then Ryan Hutchins doubled him in to cut the deficit to four. It was his 100th career hit. He also logged his 100th career stolen base in the first, and scored his 100th career run in the seventh.
But his hit moved Protik to third, the Kristian Roman got hit by a pitch to load the bases. Mark Stein hit one to short and reached on an error, scoring Portik and moving the other runners up. With Cole Mayer at the plate, Hutchins came in from third on a wild pitch. Then Mayer drove in two when he reached on a chopper to short that took a bad bounce and went high over Chase Meyer’s glove. Michael Dow was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Joseph Reyes swung and missed at a 2-2 pitch to end the game.
East Brunswick Magnet improves to 14-2, 10-1 in the GMC Gold Division, a half game ahead of second-place New Brunswick (9-1 overall and in the White). The Tigers play at Perth Amboy Magnet Friday, while the Zebras has Timothy Christian Thursday and Monday. But EB Magnet and New Brunswick face each other after that fir the first time this year, Wednesday in East Brunswick, and Friday – after the GMC seeding meeting that morning – at Memorial Stadium.
Dunellen dropped to 9-6, 7-4 in the White with the loss.
Both starters got the decisions; Carreras (5-0) the win for East Brunswick Magnet, Danny Watts (2-2) the loss for Dunellen.
Click below for postgame reaction from East Brunswick Magnet starting pitcher Nomar Carreras and head coach Sean Radu:
