Tag: Mike Murray

by Mike Pavlichko

Mike Murray departs as St. Joseph baseball coach, Cranford’s McCaffery comes out of retirement to lead Falcons

St. Joseph-Metuchen didn’t take long to find a new baseball coach.

Mike Murray has stepped down as head coach of the Falcons to spend more time with family, and the school has hired former Cranford skipper Dennis McCaffery to replace him, it announced Friday afternoon.

McCaffery spent 25 years at Cranford before retiring this past September. And he finished up his run as principal at the Lincoln School in Cranford in December after 27 years.

McCaffery won his 500th game last season – the 39th in the state to do so at the time – and won four state (2010, 2012, 2013) and multiple county championships, as well as the Last Dance World Series in 2020, a non-NJSIAA event that was meant to give seniors whose season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic one more chance to play at the “high school” level.

Overall, he has 500 wins, No. 4 all-time in Union County.

McCaffery is a graduate of Roselle Park, and won a state title there as a senior, then played college ball at Villanova before being drafted twice into Major League Baseball, in the 1990 28th round by the White Sox, and in the 19th round in 1991 by the Angels.

Murray has been at St. Joseph since 2016, and has three GMC Tournament titles to his credit – 2017, 2021 and 2023 – along with numerous division titles.

Click below to hear new St. Joseph baseball coach Dennis McCaffery talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio:

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen walks-off JP Stevens 10-0 on ten-run rule in GMCT play-in round

Matthew Ferber went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles, two walks and three runs batted in, while Bobby Christensen knocked in two more, as 14th-seed St. Joseph of Metuchen won its opening game of the GMC Tournament.

The Falcons, who won the GMCT last year for the second time in three years, have struggled this season with a young ballclub, but they were able to blank 19th-seed JP Stevens at home 10-0 Saturday in a mercy rule-shortened victory in the play-in round.

The win was just the fourth of the year for the Falcons (4-15), while JP Stevens falls to 5-13.

Next up, St. Joe’s travels to a familiar place, Fred Cole Field in Old Bridge, where they’ll face the third-seeded Knights on Monday at 4 pm. The Falcons faced Old Bridge early in the season, losing both matchups, 4-0 on May 6th, and 5-0 on May 8th, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Click below to hear St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray talk about the Falcons’ win:

by Mike Pavlichko

Developing Falcons look to finish strong as St. Joseph heads to South Plainfield on eve of GMC Tourney seeding meeting

Before the eventual legend Lou Urbano took over the St. Joseph-Metuchen baseball program in 1997, the Falcons had a tough year, going 3-15.

With plenty more games to go, St. Joseph – 3-14 this season – will likely finish with more wins than that. But it’s still been a difficult year in Metuchen.

To be fair, some dropoff from last year’s GMC Tournament championship team was to be expected. A number of key players – some of whom had been starting since high school baseball resumed after the COVID interruption – graduated, and for the up-and-comers, this was their opportunity, head coach Mike Murray told them.

Maybe some have been pushing too hard, maybe some weren’t ready. But Murray is confident this year’s experience will pay off, whether it’s later this year, or in 2025.

Still, the Falcons’ goal is to go hard down the wire, and that includes Thursday afternoon’s game at No. 2 South Plainfield, the presumptive top-seed in the GMC Tournament, which starts Saturday, and will be seeded Friday morning. Thursday’s game is scheduled for 4 pm, with pregame at 3:45 on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko has all the play-by-play; click here to listen.

St. Joseph played the Tigers tough in Metuchen on Tuesday. Both pitchers – Mike Castagna for South and Joseph Barca for the Falcons – pitched complete games. But South Plainfield scores two late runs to come out with a 4-2 win.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mike Murray:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 Old Bridge welcomes in No. 5 St. Joseph-Metuchen, after the solar eclipse

Whether it’s clear enough to see it or not, a decision was made a couple of weeks ago to push off the start time of Monday’s GMC Red Division game between Old Bridge and St. Joseph-Metuchen. But that meant moving the game to Old Bridge, since the Falcons’ home field doesn’t have lights.

And so, after a 4-0 Knights’ road win on Saturday – in a game played in Linden on turf after a week of rain across Central Jersey left puddles all over natural grass playing surfaces and dirt infields – the two teams will square off Monday at 6:30 at Fred Cole Field, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau will call all the action, with pregame at 6:15, and first pitch at 6:30 pm. Click here to listen to the live broadcast for free!

The Knights (3-1) are the defending Central Jersey Group 4 champions, and made it all the way to the state finals last season, falling to Ridgewood in the Group 4 final in Hamilton. They have a wealth of pitching back and are expected to contend for the division, county and state titles again this season.

St. Joe’s is off to an 0-2 start, with losses to one ranked team (North Brunswick) and one un-ranked team (Monroe) that now finds itself in the Top Ten, after they also knocked off the Raiders.

Click below to hear both head coaches talk about their first week of the season and Monday’s matchup:

Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue
St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mike Murray
by Mike Pavlichko

With St. Joe’s “regulars” gone, Murray’s top job is figuring how the pieces will fit for the Falcons

Missing the 2020 high school baseball season presented its own set of challenges for teams in New Jersey, but it also leveled the playing field a bit. The 2021 season was loaded with seniors who had their last scholastic experience as sophomores.

For St. Joseph Metuchen, it also meant their sophomores – who saw a ton of action – would wind up being three-year starters, and that made life somewhat easy for Falcons’ head coach Mike Murray, who’s had a consistent core since returning to the diamond post-pandemic.

But many of them are now at other places. Robbie Carvelli is at Lehigh, Jimmy Mulvaney went to Farifield. Mark Gialluisi is at Virginia. Christian Azcona is at Eastern Kentucky, Josiah Brown is playing for Manhattan, and Bryan Rios is at Felician.

For the past few seasons, Murray hasn’t had to make too many decisions. Now, he’ll have to, as St. Joe’s looks to defend its Greater Middlesex County Tournament title with a vastly different lineup. But it also means the patience of the underclassmen is about to payoff. Now, there are spots up for grabs, and it’s their time.

Click below to hear St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray talk about the upcoming season for St. Joseph of Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen falls short, 4-1, in Non-Public South A title game to Red Bank Catholic

It wasn’t exactly David vs. Goliath, but St. Joseph-Metuchen clearly wasn’t the favorite against Red Bank Catholic, the No. 1-ranked team in the state, heading into Saturday’s Non-Public South A title game.

But for most of five innings, with Jimmy Mulvaney puzzling the Caseys hitters, it looked like an upset might be in the making, even after RBC tied the game at one in the fifth inning.

Red Bank Catholic may not have figured out Mulvaney, but they were able to piece enough together to come out with a 4-1 win, and the sectional title, after all, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

In the decisive sixth inning, Red Bank Catholic got three runs on three hits, all singles, and two errors, including a passed ball, plus a mishandled bunt situation where no one was quite sure whose ball it was t field.

St. Joe’s got its only run in the first inning. Robbie Carvellie doubled with one out, then after a two-ouot walk by Tyler DelVecchio, Matt Kosuda drove him in with a single.

For a while, it looked like that might be the only run of the game. But it wasn’t.

RBC’s Matt Brunner got hit by Mulvaney on the first pitch of the fifth. A sac bunt moved him to second, and an error on a ground ball hit to short by Max Dantoni tied the score.

Then, with the game tied at one in the bottom of the sixth, RBC went ahead in what would be its final at bat of the year at Count Basie Field.

Sean Griggs led with a single, then Frank Scrivanic reached on an error. A passed ball allowed Griggs to score from third, making it 2-1 RBC. Then Brunner flied to center to make it 3-1, and a Brendan Kopec single drove in the fourth run, but he got cut down trying to extend it to a double to end the inning.

Joe’s went down 1-2-3 in the seventh to end the game, and ends its season 23-4.

Red Bank Catholic will play in the Non-Public A Final Thursday in Hamilton against either Don Bosco Prep or Bergen Catholic, the North A winner.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray
Red Bank Catholic, 2023 Non-Public South A Champions. (Photo: Justin Sontupe)
Red Bank Catholic head coach Buddy Hausmann
by Mike Pavlichko

Red Division, non-conference slate has St. Joseph well-prepared for Caseys in Non-Public South A final

Playing in what may very well be the toughest division in the state, St. Joseph-Metuchen has come through the gauntlet.

They didn’t win their division, but took the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, beating the Red Division champion, North Brunswick, when in counted: in the county final.

Now, they hope that experience pays off in the state playoffs, where they will take on the top-ranked team in New Jersey.

The second-seeded Falcons (21-9) will travel down the Shore Saturday morning to play top-seed Red Bank Catholic (23-5) for the Non-Public South A title, in a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

First pitch is set for 11 am, with pregame at 10:45, as Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe provide the play-by-play. Click here to listen.

St. Joe’s is playing in the finals for the first time since 2019, and looking for its first sectional crown since they beat Bishop Eustace in 2010, but lost to Immaculata in the statewide Non-Public Group A final. The Falcons also claim titles in 2007, falling in the state final to Seton Hall Prep, and 1989, where they lost to Don Bosco Prep in the state final.

Red Bank Catholic, meanwhile, snapped a string of six straight titles won in the section by St. Augustine, beating the Hermits 8-2 back on Wednesday. They’re also the Shore Conference Tournament Champions for a fourth straight year. Although, notably, one of their five losses this year did come to a team very familiar to St. Joseph: Old Bridge. The Knights beat them 2-1 last month in their Autism Awareness Challenge game.

George Washington commit Alex Stanyek (2-0, 0.30 ERA) is expected to get the ball for the Caseys against one of the biggest and baddest lineups in the GMC, one which has been hitting the ball exceedingly hard of late. The Falcons are coming off an 11-3 drubbing of Notre Dame in Wednesday’s semifinals.

As in that game, Jimmy Mulvaney (7-0, 1.70 ERA) will get the start for St. Joe’s. Yes, that will be starts in back-to-back games, but he’ll do it because head coach Mike Murray was wise with his pitching staff in Wednesday’s game. Murray had that luxury after his team jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three innings against the Irish, with Mulvaney throwing just 68 pitches through five innings of work. That leaves him with 82 for Saturday, per NJSIAA pitch count rules. And closer Bryan Rios should have plenty in the tank, too, after throwing just 26 pitches in the final two innings of relief back on Wednesday.

Click below for preview interviews of the Non-Public South A final with both head coaches:

St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mike Murray
Red Bank Catholic head coach Buddy Hausmann
by Mike Pavlichko

Seven-run third, solid start from Mulvaney puts St. Joseph-Metuchen in first sectional final since 2019

GMC Tournament champion St. Joseph-Metuchen will get a chance to add to its trophy case this season.

They’re in the Non-Public South A championship game Saturday after an 11-3 win for the second-seeded Falcons over sixth seed Notre Dame at Diamond Nation in Flemington in the semifinals Wednesday afternoon.

St. Joe’s got on the board in the first when leadoff man Mark Gialluisi reached on an error. After a Robbie Carvelli single and a sac bunt, Tyler Delvecchio’s groundout to third made it 1-0.

But the big inning came in the third, when Joe’s sent 12 hitters to the plate and scored sevent imes on just four hits, along with two walks, a hit batter and two errors on Notre Dame shortstop TJ Magliozzo.

Will Ramsay led off with a double, and Gialluisi reached again on an error. After Carvelli struck out, Josiah Brown reached on another error on Magliozzo, which drove in Ramsay to make it 2-0. Delvecchio walked to load the bases, and Kosuda did the same to make it 3-0. Joseph Zammitti then knocked in two with a single to make it 5-0.

After a pitching change, with Tristan Stephenson relieving starter Luke Foley, a Bobby Christensen single loaded the bases, a Christian Azcona fly to left scored Kosuda for the sixth run. Ramsay got hit by a pitch to load the bases again, then Mark Gialluisi had a two RBI single to make it 8-0 before Carvellli grounded to short to end it.

Notre Dame got three back in the fifth after starter Jimmy Mulvaney was pulled to conserve pitches for, at that point, a potential final Saturday.

But Joe’s got them right back in the bottom of the fifth, with back-to-back singles by Christensen and Azcona, and then a two-out, three-run inside-the-park home run by Robbie Carvelli. The ball was hit to short center and Lance Eilbacher slid for it, but missed the ball, which went all the way back to the wall.

Mulvaney got the win, improving to 6-0, while the Falncons improve to 21-9. Mulvaney struck out seven in 4 1/3, with two of the three Notre Dame runs charged to him.

St. Joseph will play for the Non-Public South A title Saturday (time TBA) against Red Bank Catholic, the top seed and No. 1 team in the state, at Count Basie Field in Red Bank.

In their last appearance in a sectional final, they lost 5-3 to St. Augustine in 2019. That’s the Falcons only finals berth under Mike Murray, whose first season was in 2016.

Their most recent appearance before that was when they won Non-Public South A in 2010, beating Bishop Eustace 12-3. They would fall, though, in the state final, 7-5 in 8 innings to Immaculata.

Click below for postgame reaction, sponsored by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

St. Joseph centerfielder Robbie Carvelli
St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray
by Mike Pavlichko

DelVecchio homer, Mulvaney complete game give St. Joseph record-tying 8th GMC Tournament title

For a long while, it was Edison atop the pile in the annals of GMC baseball with eight seemingly untouchable tournament titles.

It took 22 years, but as of 2:41 pm Sunday, the Eagles now have some company.

Third-seed St. Joseph of Metuchen got a solo home run from Tyler Delvecchio in the fourth inning, and a complete game shutout from starter Jimmy Mulvaney, to beat top-seed and defending champion North Brunswick 2-0 in the GMC Tournament championship game, heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, driven by Auto Lounge of Edison.

The win puts St. Joe’s aside with Edison, each of which now have eight GMC Tournament crowns to their credit.

It was a matchup of the very, very good senior sidearming Mulvaney against one of the most dominant pitchers ever in the GMC, the Raiders’ Zack Konstantinovsky.

And through the first three innings, it was every bit the pitchers’ duel. Each team got their leadoff man on in the game, but both were erased on double-play balls, and the game was scoreless heading into the fourth.

With one out in the top of the inning, DelVecchio – also a senior – cranked a 380-foot home run to left-center field to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead, and Mulvaney a bit of a cushion.

And still no one got across again until the seventh, when Joe’s added some insurance.

Joseph Zammitti knocked a one-out single, and a bunt by Bobby Christensen that Konstantinovsky couldn’t field coming off the mound to his right – away from his momentum – put runners at first and second. After a flyout to center by Christian Azcona – too shallow to move pinch runner Jaden Jamison over to third, Will Ramsay ripped one down the right field line. Jamison scored easily, but Christensen was cut down by a hair at the plate on a perfect relay from Chris Rosario in right to first baseman Frankie Garbolino to catcher Omar Carreras.

The Falcons also had Ramsey thrown at the plate to end the fifth after a leadoff double.

The win puts St. Joe’s at 19-8 heading into the state tournament later this week, while North Brunswick dropped to 18-6. The Raiders host 15th-seed Long Branch Monday in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group 4 sectionals.

It was a rematch of last year’s final, when St. Joseph was the No. 1 seed and defending champ, getting upset by 6th-seed North Brunswick. This year, with the situations reversed, The Falcons turned the tables, and claimed their second title in the last three years, in their third straight GMCT finals appearance.

Mulvaney got the win, going the distance, while Konstantinovsky did the same – striking out ten – in taking the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from St. Joseph’s eighth overall GMC Tournament title, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen!

St. Joseph winning pitcher Jimmy Mulvaney
St. Joseph first baseman Tyler Delvecchio
St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray
by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph hopes to keep hot bats, pitching going for GMC finals as Falcons look to dethrone North Brunswick

The pitching has worked itself out, the hitting has been there all season long. Now, an experienced St. Joseph-Metuchen baseball team will try to win back the GMC Tournament crown from the Raiders.

The third-seeded Falcons (18-8, 7-5 GMC Red) will battle North Brunswick (18-5, 14-4 GMC Red) Sunday afternoon in a rematch of last year’s final, except this time the Raiders are the defending champs and the No. 1 seed, like St. Joe’s was last year.

The game was moved from Saturday due to rain in the forecast, and first pitch now is set for 1:00 Sunday at Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick on the campus of East Brunswick Magnet School, and you can hear all the live play-by-play with pregame beginning at 12:30 on Central Jersey Sports Radio – driven by Auto Lounge of Edison.

Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action. Click here to listen.

The challenge for St. Joe’s will be two-fold. One: keep its lineup going strong. Pitching ruled the day, especially of late, in the GMC Tournament semifinals and finals. In fact, this year’s semis both were 2-1 ballgames.

Their opponent on the mound is Zack Konstantinovsky, the Rutgers-bound senior who has only allowed four earned runs all year. In a semifinal win over Monroe, he gave up a run in the first inning on four hits – two of which came after the run scored, including an infield hit on a bunt – but got out of it, leaving the bases loaded.

The Falcons didn’t get another hit the rest of the game, and only had two other baserunners: one via walk, the other hit by a pitch.

The second challenge is the lineup that starting pitcher Jimmy Mulvaney (4-3, 1.85 ERA) will have to face. North Brunswick is hitting .345 with 19 home runs on the season, led by eight from senior Omar Carreras, and six from Konstantinovsky.

The Falcons were swept two games in divisional play by North Brunswick this year, and have lost four straight to the Raiders. The last win for the green-and-white against North came in 2019 – pre-COVID – a 5-2 decision in late April of that year.

Click below for a preview of the title game with St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray: