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 campaign ever at 25-4.
They were one of the last few undefeated teams in the state – you could count them on one hand at one point, and have another finger left over – and grabbed the attention of the entire GMC, pulling for the underdogs who play on a beautiful grass field tucked between Rutgers’ Livingston Campus and the industrial Camp Kilmer area in Edison.
And after such a great year, Piscataway Magnet head coach Greg Sampson is the Central Jersey Sports Radio Greater Middlesex Conference Coach of the Year.
He couldn’t have done it alone, of course, not without talent. As a team, they hit .333,led by junior Vincent Canavan, who hit .467 on the season with 23 RBI. Another junior, Kyle Malchiodi, hit .379 and drove in 33 runs, while also going 8-0 with a 2.36 ERA. And junior Colton Lyerly also was rock solid on the mound; he went 8-0, too, and had a 2.02 earned run average, the best on the team.
Now, go back and read that last paragraph carefully. All those key players are juniors. And so is nearly everyone else. Their only senior had six at bats all season.
And even if they do move up to the GMC Blue Division next year, the Raiders will welcome it.
Click below to hear Piscataway Magnet head coach Greg Sampson talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, joined by juniors Colton Lyerly and Vincent Canavan:
