Lou Urbano – Central Jersey Sports Radio

There was a lot of change in the South Brunswick baseball program in the off-season, and it wasn’t just the coaching staff.

Veteran GMC skipper Lou Urbano had to change the culture. Which is all fine and good in the fall and winter, but what actually happens on the field can sometimes be a different story.

Well, the Vikings got off on the right foot, sweeping Perth Amboy in their season-opening GMC White Division series, with 13-2 and 8-6 wins. The competition got a little stiffer when they faced Sayreville next, and the two split a pair, winning the opener 1-0, but dropping the next game, 5-1.

Next up: Middlesex, the defending state Group 1 champion. They split again, winning the opener 3-2, dropping the second meeting 6-2.

Tuesday brought a visit to North 2, Group 3 runner-up Colonia. And South Brunswick handed the Patriots their first loss of the season.

So far, so good, with a 5-2 start, already topping last year’s win total.

Many have contributed to the recent resurgence of Vikings baseball, but few more than Collin Perna. A senior playing his fourth-year of varsity baseball, Perna is hitting an eye-popping .532 on the season to lead the team, while junior Jack Whitlock is hitting .500, with five runs batted in and the team’s only two home runs.

And on the mound, Perna is the ace: already 3-1, with 26 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings, and an ERA of just 1.34.

It’s still early, and there’s a lot of baseball to be played, but Perna and Urbano know there’s something different about this team. South Brunswick isn’t that far removed from the 2021 season, in which they went 14-10 and reached the GMC Tournament final, ultimately falling to St. Joseph-Metuchen.

South Brunswick finishes the two-game set with the Patriots at home Thursday at 4 pm before heading to North Brunswick Community Park Saturday for a 7 pm Autism Awareness Challenge game against Metuchen. Find the event’s full weekend schedule here.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with South Brunswick senior Collin Perna and head coach Lou Urbano about the Vikings’ early-season success:

The South Brunswick baseball program isn’t that far removed from a trip to the GMC Tournament finals in 2021, and yet they are.

There’s been a decline in participation, and last season the Vikings won just four games.

Enter Lou Urbano, a Greater Middlesex Conference baseball veteran, who made his name in the northern end of the county, coaching at JFK in the 1980s, Woodbridge and Colonia in the 90s, and St. Joseph-Metuchen into the new century, before going back to Barrons.

Now, he’s at South Brunswick, with his first goal to change the culture, his second to increase the numbers in the program. Do those two things, Urbano says, and the third goal – winning – will take care of itself.

Urbano knows a thing or two about winning. And so do his former players. That’s why one of his first moves was to bring in one of his former players at Woodbridge, Harry Rutkowski, one of the GMC’s all-time greats, who played his college ball at Rutgers.

There’s a lot to do for Urbano, who’s also a football coach, and plans to remain on the staff of Brian Russo at Rahway – yet another Woodbridge connection.

Much of the pitching staff remains, with a number of sophomores and juniors back, including Jack Whitlock and Tyler Skakacs, who combined to throw 40 innings last season.

Their top hitter is Collin Perna, a junior who hit an eye-popping .446 last season with six home runs and 16 runs batted in, for a lineup that struggled to hit .216 last season, and scored just 59 runs.

And moving “down” to the White Division this year won’t necessarily be a cakewalk, but should give the Vikings a bit more breathing room. Yet, they’ll still have to face two of the league’s three 20-game winners from a year ago in Middlesex and Colonia, as well as scrappy Spotswood, the only team to beat the Blue Jays twice last season.

The Vikings open the season Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 with the first of a two-game, home-and-home set with Perth Amboy. They’ll visit the Bay City for Game Two Thursday afternoon, also at 4:30.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with new South Brunswick baseball coach Lou Urbano