Frank Papeo – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Frank Papeo threw five scoreless innings, then Justin Meyer came in from right field to handle the last two innings, as top-seed Old Bridge blanked fifth-seed East Brunswick Tuesday, 8-0, in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, sending the Knights to a title game for the first time since 2019.

Old Bridge (19-8) will host second-seed North Brunswick (21-6) for the CJ4 title Friday at 4 pm at Fred Cole Field. The Knights won both meetings with the Raiders this season.

Old Bridge chipped away early at East Brunswick starter Dustin McGuinness.

The first run came in the second. Justin Hascup hit a one-out double, then Evan Smith hit a grounder to the left side of the infield that Jack Gerould cut off. He got Smith at first, but when Hascup treid to go to third, first baseman Jack Ryan fired across the diamond high. The ball went up the line, and Hascup beat a high throw to the plate from left fielder John Oranchak to make it 1-0.

In the third, John Smith led off with a walk, and after a sac bunt put him in scoring position, and a fly out to center, Mike Villani tripled to drive in Smith, then scored himself on a single by Old Bridge starting pitcher Frank Papeo.

Though Old Bridge wouldn’t score again until the top of the sixth, the turning point may have come in the top of the fourth. With one out and two-on, McGuiness was called out looking on strikes, but was tossed from the game for arguing with the home plate umpire. When head coach Chris Kenney came out to argue, he was likewise ejected.

That left Joe Ditzel – who pitched very well in a quarterfinal win over Manalapan last week – to relieve McGuinness. After a 1-2-3 fourth, he gave up a walk and single to start the fifth, but got out of it without any damage being done.

The damage would come in the sixth inning.

Shawn Bogda singled, and after a pop up bunt was caught, Adam Scire walked, and Bogda advanced to third on a wild pitch thrown to pinch-hitter Akhil Penkala. But on a pickoff attempt at first, Bogda got caught trying to score, and Scire moved to second. Penkala walked, and so did John Smith to load the bases.

Thomas Papeo drove in two of those runs with a single to make it 5-0, and then came the bomb: a three-run blast to right center field by Kyle McSorely to make it 8-0.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Old Bridge’s Thomas and Frank Papeo

Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue

There is perhaps the top pitcher in the state, who’s headed to Rutgers.

There’s another really excellent junior who’s headed to Oregon in a couple of years.

There’s a kid who’s his coach’s go-to guy, but who doesn’t even think of himself as a pitcher.

And there’s a solid junior who’s only lost two games all year, in which he got a grand total of one run in support.

Zack Konstantinovsky, Harrison Lollin, Dustin McGuinness and Frank Papeo all are expected to take the mound Tuesday in what will be an all-GMC Red Division Central Jersey Group 4 semifinal round, with the Greater Middlesex Conference guaranteed a champion in the section for the first time since Old Bridge won it in 2015.

The Knights are in the mix again this year, with top-seed Old Bridge (18-8) taking on fifth-seed East Brunswick (15-11) on Monday at 6 pm, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio with a 5:45 pregame and 6 pm first pitch at Fred Cole Field; click here to listen.

That will follow the 4 pm semifinal at Community Park in North Brunswick where the second-seeded Raiders (20-6) ill take on sixth-seed Monroe (14-10).

Raiders vs. Falcons

In that first game, “Zack K” is expected to go against Harrison Lollin, a matchup of two Division 1-bound pitchers, with Konstantinovsky signed on to play at Rutgers next spring, while Lollin will have one more year in purple and gold before heading out to the Pacific Northwest to play for Oregon. And they’ve faced each other this year twice, with Zack getting the better of Harrison both times.

North Brunswick head coach Mark Blevins brought Zack (now 8-1, 0.38 ERA) back on just the minimum three days’ rest after throwing 90 pitches in a 2-0 loss to St. Joseph-Metuchen in the GMC Tournament final, his first charged loss this season. With four days’ in between, the pitch count resets for Zack and he’s able to go the full 110 Tuesday if he needs it. Against South Brunswick in the semis he went 4 2/3 innings, allowed two hits and struck out nine.

While no one comes close to the dominance Konstantinovsky has had in the GMC the last few years, Lollin (5-2, 1.44 ERA) has actually been just as unhittable this year, despite an ERA that’s almost a full run higher. Figure this: in 56 innings, Konstantinovsky has allowed 24 hits, for a very respectable 0.43 hits per inning. Lollin has allowed 28 hits in 53 1/3 innings, a rate of 0.45 hits per inning.

The difference in the two meetings this year has been North Brunswick getting just enough offense to get by; the Raiders won on April 11th by a score of 1-0 on an RBI single by Chris Roasario. The second meeting came in the GMC Tournament semifinals, a 2-1 victory for the Raiders thanks to a two-run homer by Omar Carreras. Those two games managed 13 hits combined by the two teams: seven by the Raiders and six by the Falcons.

Knights vs. Bears

The second game should feature Old Bridge’s Frank Papeo against East Brunswick’s Dustin McGuinness. The two teams split their only meetings this year, with the Bears taking a 5-2 win on April 17th, but the Knights winning 5-4 the next day. Neither pitcher threw in either game.

Papeo (5-2, 1.71 ERA) is head coach Matt Donaghue’s No. 1, and has struck out 63 in 53 1/3 innings pitched. His ERA is up a bit from last year (1.25) but he’s also become more of a strikeout pitcher, nearly doubling last year’s total in just 14 more innings. And that ERA is inflated from two starts where he gave up five and four runs, respectively, even though both games were wins: a 10-8 slugfest over St. Joe’s back in the first week of the season, and a 7-6 victory over Sayreville.

McGuinness (4-4, 3.77 ERA) has the highest earned run average of the group, and lost four straight games this season, but got little run support or defensive support in them. Against South Plainfield on April 11th, he gave up eight runs, but only four earned, in a 12-1 loss. Against St. Joe’s on April 20th, he allowed 12 runs – but only five were earned – in a 12-6 defeat. And a week later against North Brunswick he lost a slim 2-1 decision.

East Brunswick, though, has been better in the field in recent weeks, and has gotten much more timely hitting. In that four game skid, McGuinness and his teammates (he plays shortstop when not pitching) scored a grand total of eight runs. But the team has won his last four starts, in which the Bears’ lineup has produced 28 runs and allowed only 13, and McGuinness himself has only allowed seven earned runs, coming in just two of the four games, striking out 29 of the 48 batters he’s fanned all season.