Jake Rosenberg – Central Jersey Sports Radio

For the third time this year, Old Bridge will face North Brunswick, but this time there will be a trip to the GMC Tournament semifinals on the line.

The third-seeded Knights (14-5) and 11th-seeded Raiders (6-10) will square off at 4 pm Wednesday at North Brunswick Community Park in one of the first two of four GMCT quarterfinal games, and you can hear the game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, beginning with pregame at 3:40 pm.

Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino will call all the action; click here to listen.

Both teams have had championship pedigrees the last couple of years. North Brunswick won the GMC Tournament in 2022, then got back to the final last year, but lost to St. Joseph-Metuchen. Old Bridge won the Central Jersey Group 4 title last year in the NJSIAA Tournament, and made it all the way to the state Group 4 final, losing to Ridgewood down in Hamilton.

Old Bridge has a solid starting pitching rotation, and is expected to throw Justin Hascup Wednesday. He’s 4-1 with a 2.14 ERA, and threw five pitches Monday to get the save in a 6-4 win over 14th-seed and defending GMCT champion St. Joe’s.

North Brunswick – which upset sixth-seed Monroe 2-1 on the road Monday on the strength of a Kyle Anderson no-hitter – is expected to go with Alejandro Jabar, who’s 0-5 with a 4.60 ERA. He started the teams’ April 12th game, which North Brunswick lost 6-3.

The teams split a pair of regular season games this year. Old Bridge won at home, 6-2, on April 9th, then the Raiders won at North Brunswick Community Park, their home field, and the site of Wednesday’s meeting, April 12th.

Old Bridge had a three-game skid in late April, dropping a home-and-home to South Plainfield that ended up costing them the GMC Red title, but they rebounded to win three straight heading into Monday’s win over the Falcons in the GMCT first round.

North Brunswick will be seeking its first three-game win streak all year, adjusting to life after Zach Konstantinovsky, a dual threat on the mound and at the plate, who’s now at Rutgers.

Senior Yomar Carreras – a great hitter last year – has taken the mantle on offense, hitting .476, slugging .929 with a team-best 15 RBIs and three home runs, the only three the Raiders have hit all year. Junior Tim DeGaetano is hitting .364 with 16 runs batted in, and senior Chris Rosario has knocked in a dozen.

For Old Bridge, they’re hitting a bit better than last year’s team – still under .300 as a group – but they’ve never been a slugging team. They get timely hits, and can small-ball and piece together runs when needed. Junior Akhil Penkala leads the team with a .386 batting average, while seniors Michael Altman and JT Meyer are tied for the team lead in RBIs with 11 each.

Expect a low scoring game (which means: maybe not!) with these two. Though Old Bridge finished second in the GMC Red Division and North Brunswick fifth, they rank fourth and fifth respectively among the top five – also including South Plainfield, Monroe and South Brunswick – in runs scored this season.

Click below to hear from both head coaches:

Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue

North Brunswick head coach Jake Rosenberg

A player like Zack Konstantinovsky – the Central Jersey Sports Radio Player of the Year in 2023 – comes along once in a lifetime.

But with his pitching (and hitting) talents now a few miles away in Piscataway, where he’s on the mound for Rutgers, North Brunswick will be just fine in 2024, thank you.

And that’s even with a new head coach, as Mark Blevins stepped down at the end of last year, and Jake Rosenberg took over as head coach.

Yes, that’s the same Jake Rosenberg who played his high school ball wearing a Raider uniform. Along the way, he’s been an assistant at St. Joseph-Metuchen, a head coach at Piscataway Magnet, and a football assistant for North Brunswick.

But back to the players. While losing a player of Zack Konstantinovsky’s caliber – he gave up just five earned runs all year in 2023, while hitting eight home runs – would be a tall enough order for anyone to overcome, many other key parts also graduated, like Frankie Garbolino and EJ Accetura and Omar Carreras, who smacked eight home runs last year, and hit for a .461 average.

And yet, there’s plenty of talent left. Yomar Carreras, who batted .411 with two home runs and 18 RBIs last year, is back for his senior season.

On the mound, Alejandro Jabar and Kyle Anderson are coming off junior years where they’d be the clear No. 1 ace on a lot of teams. Now, they’re an excellent 1a and 1b combo. Anderson pitched to a 2.05 ERA last year in 41 innings pitched, while Jabar threw 37 1/3 innings, with a 2.06 ERA.

And surely, Rosenberg will discover some new talent.

Rosenberg may have some work cut out for him in 2024, but says he won’t try and “reinvent the wheel.” Instead, he hoped to build on the groundwork laid before him by Blevins.

Click below to hear new North Brunswick baseball coach Jake Rosenberg talk about the Raiders’ upcoming season: