Tag: Sean Field

by justinsontupe

Red-hot Faigin, Mangano lead equally red-hot Monroe into GMC Tourney final against even hotter Old Bridge squad

Note: Due to rain in the forecast, the GMC Championship game has been moved to Saturday, May 30 at 12 noon at Ray Cipperly Field at East Brunswick Magnet School.

It’s been a topsy-turvy season for Monroe, dropping 11-of-14 after a 5-1 start to limp into the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament as the No. 9 seed. But with county supremacy on the line, the Falcons kicked it into high gear.

Three consecutive upsets – Colonia, Edison, and South Plainfield – has Monroe (13-13) in the finals, where they will third-seeded Old Bridge (17-8) for the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament Championship next Saturday, May 30th. You can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio by clicking here, or you can watch it live on our YouTube channel.

Junior Ben Faigin – currently committed to play college baseball at Rutger – has set the tone. Amidst a stellar season (6-1, 1.27 ERA), he has done his best work in the GMC Tournament. 

In the first round against Colonia, he struck out 13 in a complete game two-hitter, allowing just a couple runs. Pitching again last week in the semifinals at East Brunswick Magnet – in a 1-0 win over five-seed South Plainfield – he was even better: a complete game, one-hit shutout with 13 more strikeouts.

That’s 26 strikeouts and just three hits allowed over 14 innings.

While Faigin was expected to take the mound again Saturday with the GMC trophy on the line, it’s up in the air if he’ll do it a week later, depending on how Monroe fares in the state tournament, which begins for them next Wednesday. The Falcons are the five-seed in Central Jersey Group 4 and will host 12-seed Montgomery in the opening round.

Faigin’s battery mate, senior Justin Mangano, has been Monroe’s catalyst on offense. Hitting .402 in a terrific senior year, Mangano has also been at his best in the GMC Tournament. He is 8-for-13 with 4 RBIs, collecting multiple hits in every game. The shining moment so far? The go-ahead RBI double with two outs in the 7th inning against South Plainfield, ultimately sending the Falcons to the GMC title game.

It’s Monroe’s first trip to a GMC title game since 2017 – a loss to St. Joe’s. Monroe’s last GMC championship was in 2015, a 1-0 win over Sayreville.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe talk with Monroe head coach Sean Field:

by Mike Pavlichko

Faigin’s one-hit gem, Mangano’s double in 7th send Monroe past South Plainfield in GMCT semifinals

When the last swing-and-a-miss on Monroe starting pitcher Ben Faigin’s 13th strikeout Saturday ended the GMC Tournament’s first semifinial of the day, he threw his glove up in the air, partying like it was 2017, or maybe 2015.

2015 was the last time the Falcons won the GMC Tournament , and 2017 was the last time they made it to the title game.

Now, they’re back in it, and will play next Saturday at 2 pm in the GMC’s Jim Muldowney Tournament final at Rutgers’ Bainton Field in Piscataway against the winner of today’s second semifinal between two-seed Middlesex and third-seed Old Bridge.

And the win was not just thanks to Faigin, but also to his catcher James Mangano, who besides calling and backstopping a fantastic game for his senior, Rutgers-bound starter, delivered a two-out double in the top of the seventh inning to drive in center fielder Tyler Bacon, who’d reached on a one-out single.

A pitchers’ duel all the way, Faigin and South Plainfield’s Aiden McCarthy were cruising, even though McCarthy nearly gave Monroe a lead in the top of the first. Mangano led off with a second-pitch single, and McCarthy walked – maybe pitched around? – Fagin, hitting .522 enteritng the game. But he got a strikeout, pop out and fly out to end the inning, the biggest threat by either team until the seventh.

And after Monroe took the 1-0 lead, South Plainfield still had a chance in its final at bat, with Faigin only having 15 pitches to work with before hitting the 110 limit. With two out, Anhtony CIcenia walked, bringing up freshman second baseman Gabe Garcia.

He worked a 3-2 count, and during that, Cicenia stole second on a pitch that went to the backstop, but came quickly back to Mangano. Cicenia beat the throw, overslid the base, but it was ruiled he got back in time to avoid another tag.

But Faigin bore down and got the strikeout, sending Monroe to the GMC title game.

Click below to hear postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe with Monroe’s Ben Faigin, Justin Mangano, and head coach Sean Fiels, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by justinsontupe

Ninth-seed Monroe seeks its highest point of rollercoaster season, trip to title game in GMC Tourney semifinals

Are the ninth-seeded Monroe Falcons, at 11-12 and a win away from a trip to the county title game a Cinderella?

It’s tough to say.

The lows have been low: losses in eight of nine entering the Jim Muldowney GMC Championship Tournament. But the highs have been very high: a 5-1 start and a mid-April upset win over perennial state power Red Bank Catholic. To date, it’s the only victory by a GMC team over a club currently ranked in the state Top 20 all season long.

“I told the guys we’ve just got to stay consistent,” said Monroe head coach Sean Field. “We’re built for the playoffs. The games that we’ve lost, we’ve been right in them right till the very end. Once the playoffs come, we’ve got to start playing our best baseball, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

The Falcons took down 8th-seeded Colonia, 9-2, in the tournament’s first round on Monday. Ben Faigin, who is penciled in as Monroe’s semifinal starter, struck out 13 batters in a complete game effort.

Monroe followed that by taking care of top-seeded Edison, 9-1, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Faigin launched a two-run home run and Andre Love struck out 11 Eagles in a complete game of his own.

Senior catcher Justin Mangano has been the catalyst at the top of the lineup. He has 6 hits and 3 RBIs over the two GMC tournament games.

In what has been a season of ups and downs, the Falcons find themselves in position to do something the school hasn’t done since 2017: play in a GMC final. South Plainfield (13-10) – which has already beaten Monroe twice this season – stands in the way at East Brunswick Magnet School on Saturday afternoon.

First pitch is set for 12:00 and coverage begins on Central Jersey Sports Radio at 11:40 with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call.  That’s the first of a doubleheader, with the second game featuring second-seed Middlesex and third-seed Old Bridge. Both games can be heard live by clicking this link, and can also be seen here, with a video stream on our YouTube channel.

Click below to hear Monroe head coach Sean Field with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe:

by Nick Hart

Nine-seed Monroe upsets top-seed Edison in dominant road victory, advances to GMC semifinals

It was a cloudy and windy afternoon as the number one seed, Edison, hosted nine-seeded Monroe in the quarterfinals of the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament, and although the sun didn’t shine, the Falcons (10-12) sure did on the field. 

Monroe wasted no time jumping on the Eagles (15-6) as the first three hitters of the game recorded a hit. First, it was Justin Mangano who started things off with a single, then it was Ben Faigin – Monday’s winning pitcher in an upset of Colonia – who doubled, and both were driven in by an Alex Marcus double to take an early lead. 

In the bottom half of the first, Edison looked like it was ready to answer right back, with two base runners of its own reaching via a pair of walks. With two on and one out it looked as though the Eagles had the Falcons starter, Andre Love, in some early trouble. But Love found his way out of the jam by striking out the next to batters to keep his team’s lead intact. 

After a leadoff single, start the top of the second by Austin Loudin, the next two batters were set down, but the lineup had flipped back up to the top. Mangano singled once again, bringing up Faigin, who launched a three-run homer to left-center field that sent his team and the Monroe faithful into a frenzy. 

On the other side of the inning, love continued to settle in, setting down Edison in order, picking up another pair of strikeouts. 

The Eagles found some success in the third, but were only able to push across one run on an RBI double from Ray Tavarez. 

With a five-run advantage, the sentiment in the Falcons’ dugout seemed to be that no matter the lead, no number would suffice. Monroe proceeded to tack on an additional run in the top of the fourth and three more in the top of the fifth with RBIs from Marcus in both frames, Mangano in the fifth, as well as a run driven in by Tyler Bacon.

In the bottom half of those innings, Edison could not string together much success against Love on the mound. The Eagles went down in order in the fourth, and sent four to the plate in the fifth, thanks to a two-out triple from Robert Roma, which resulted in no runs.

Love found the same success in the bottom of the sixth, retiring Edison, one, two, three, with another pair of strikeouts. Approaching his pitch limit in the bottom of the seventh, Love needed to be efficient in order to complete the game, and that is just what he was. With the first to batters of the inning retired on groundouts, Love punctuated his standout performance with a strikeout, his 11th of the ballgame. 

To have a stat line of seven innings pitched, three hits, one run and 11 strikeouts is impressive in its own right, but to do so against the top team in the GMC tournament adds just another level to Love’s outing.

The top of the Falcons’ order also had a stellar performance, with each of the top three hitters in the lineup reaching base three or more times. 

Next up for Monroe is a matchup against the five seed, South Plainfield in the semi-finals of the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament after the Tigers defeated Monroe 7-6 in their quarterfinal matchup.  That game will be played at noon, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call. 

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart with Monroe pitcher Andre Love, catcher Justin Mangano and head coach Sean Field, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 5 Monroe goes on the attack early, hangs on to stun state-ranked Red Bank Catholic, 5-2, in Autism Awareness Challenge; plus all weekend Challenge scores

Monroe head coach Sean Field knew what kind of challenge his Falcons would be in for when they picked up Red Bank Catholic for their Autism Awareness Challenge game this weekend at North Brunswick’s Community Park.

What he didn’t know is that his team would enter the weekend having lost four of their last five games, coming off a two-game sweep at the hands of Woodbridge.

They got back on the right track with an 8-4 win at St. Thomas Aquinas Saturday, then got thrown a curve when a rainy forecast moved their game with the Caseys to Mannino Park in Old Bridge.

But on the way to the game, Field said to his assistant, “You know, if we could get up on these guys early…”

Turns out, that’s just what they did.

The Falcons – who are 7-4, and the No. 5 team in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top 10 – scored five times in the top of the first, then hung on til the seventh, when starting pitcher Aadi Shah allowed two runs on a two-out single. But he got out of it, and the Falcons hung on for a 5-2 win over the perennial state power Caseys, who were ranked No. 18 in the state Top 20 heading in.

After a leadoff walk, a double, and a strikeout to start the game, Alex Marcus made it 1-0 with a single. Ben Faigin, who’d doubled, scored on a passed ball for the second run. Michael Cinque doubled for the third. Matt Linke scored on a dropped third strike to Rob Profaci to make it 4-0, and Christian Luciani drove in the last run on a sac fly to right.

That was all the scoring until the seventh, when Red Bank Catholic (6-2) loaded the bases with one out via a double, single and a six-pitch walk. After Shah got a swinging strikeout for the second out, Luke Lonczak singled to right field, plating two, but Shah then got Charlie Stumberger to ground out to second.

Now, the Falcons are back on a two-game win streak, with St. Thomas Aquinas coming down to Monroe Tuesday to finish their two-game GMC Red Division set.

Click below for postgame reaction from Monroe head coach Sean Field with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Here’s the weekend roundup of baseball scores from the Autism Awareness Challenge:

THURSDAY:

  • Roselle Park 10, Bound Brook 3
  • South Amboy 22, Rahway 10
  • Scotch Plains-Fanwood 13, East Brunswick 3
  • Piscataway Magnet 17, East Brunswick Magnet 6

FRIDAY:

  • Middlesex 11, Voorhees 12
  • Rutgers Prep 17, Union Catholic 10
  • Spotswood 5, Somerville 4
  • Delbarton 11, Randolph 10

SATURDAY:

  • Barnegat 11, JP Stevens 1
  • South Plainfield 4, Millburn 2
  • Sparta 9, Steinert 3
  • Ramapo 15, Holy Spirit 6
  • Jackson Twp. 10, Livingston 4
  • South River 14, Weehawken 2
  • Carteret 13, North Brunswick 0
  • Metuchen 8, South Brunswick 3

SUNDAY:

  • Monroe 5, Red Bank Catholic 2
  • St. Joseph-Metuchen 7-6
  • Sayreville vs. Mainland (called in 3rd inning due to rain)
  • Gloucester Catholic 8, Governor Livingston 7
  • Columbia 10, Edison 4
  • Gill St. Bernard’s vs. Notre Dame, 4 pm
  • Westfield 4, Old Bridge 3
  • St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Oratory Prep, 7 pm
by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe’s run ends in Central Jersey Group 4 final; Falcons toppled 5-1 at Jackson Memorial

A thrilling run for Monroe in the state tournament – including an upset of GMCT champion Old Bridge in the sectional semifinals – has come to an end.

Despite a tight game early, a four-run 4th inning, clutch defense, and outstanding pitching that propelled the Jackson Memorial Jaguars to a 5-1 victory in the Central Jersey Group 4 Championship game on Monday afternoon down in Ocean County.

In that frame, Jack Osmond walked in a run, Julian Caruso hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in another, Nick Izzo then singled to center to drive in a third, and Brady Wendell topped it off with a single to right-centerfield to make the score 5-1.

The Jags never looked back.

The game had the vibe from first pitch that it was going to be a 1-0 kind of game featuring a pitchers duel between Javoni Hallihan of the Jags and Zack Wallace of the Falcons. And for a while, it continued to look like that.

Neither team had a hit until the third inning, Wallace struck out five of the first six batters he faced, and both teams couldn’t get that big hit early on.

Then the story of the game changed.

Brady Wendell hit a five-hopper to first base but the ball was bobbled by Falcons’s first baseman Harrison Lollin allowing Julian Caruso to score the game’s first run in the bottom of the third.

But the Falcons played small ball to tie up the score in the top of the fourth, when Zack Wallace bunted towards the mound and Nick Fletcher ran on home to even things up at 1-1.

While the Falcons got runners on base in innings tow, three and four, they were only able to drive in one run, including when they loaded the bases as Hallihan did his best Houdini impression to get out of an inning unscathed.

Wallace recorded seven strikeouts in four innings and allowed five runs, four of them earned before being replaced on the mound by Lucas White.

Monroe was two-hit in the game: a single each by Justin Mangano and Nick Fletcher.

They finish the season 16-10, while Jackson improves to 18-10. They will take on South 4 champion Eastern (24-6) Wednesday in the Group 4 semifinals. The fifth-seeded Vikings were 4-2 winners over seven-seed Egg Harbor Township. The winner of that game will play for the state Group 4 title at 7 pm Saturday in at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton against the winner of the other semifinal between North 2 champion Bridgewater-Raritan and North 1 champ Livingston.

Story by Vin Ebenau.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Monroe head coach Sean Field
Jackson Memorial head coach Pat George

by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe knocks off defending CJ4 champ, top-seeded Old Bridge to gain berth in sectional final

Let’s get one thing clear: it’s all about the players.   But Monroe head coach Sean Field had one heck of a day, and it’s not over yet. 

He and his wife Amy welcomed their new son Brady into the world a little after 2 pm.  He arrived at Fred Cole Field in Old Bridge for a 5:00 game during infield/outfield warm-ups.  And then his fifth-seeded Falcons knocked off the top-seed and defending champion Knights 6-5 in the Central Jersey Group 4 semi-finals, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Now, it’s back home – for while – to wife Amy, his newborn son, and 4-year-old daughter Emilia.

No break for Sean Field.

And now, to the game.

Starter Harrison Lollin had a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound.  He gave up the lead at 4-3 in the 4th, with all three runs coming from batters who he’d walked.  But then Lucas White pitched the last three innings to close it out.

Of course, it got interesting in the 7th. Down by two runs, Old Bridge scored one but had another runner thrown out at the plate and Evan Smith struck out looking to end the game and Old Bridge’s season at 20-9. 

Monroe survives and advances, and will play in the Central Jersey Group 4 title game Monday afternoon at 3rd-seed Jackson Memorial, which was a 2-1 winner at second seed Manalapan Friday afternoon.  It’ll be their first sectional title game since 2014, when they fell 6-2 to Jackson.

White got the win, while JT Meyer took the loss for Old Bridge in relief.

Monroe scored three times in the first after the first four hitters reached on singles against Old Bridge starter Justin Hascup.  Owen Judge knocked in the first run with an RBI single and Jake LoBue knocked into with another a couple of batters later.

Old Bridge got to run back in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by MJ Altman. 

And it looked for a while like Monroe might not get another run as Hascup settled in, and after getting the final out of the first, he retired the next ten Falcon hitters he faced.

In the meantime, Old Bridge got three runs in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead.  After an Akhil Penkala groundout, the next three batters walked against Lollin.  One run came in on a wild pitch and then John Smith knocked in two with a single.  But the inning ended when he was picked off of first.

Monroe took the lead back with two in the top of the fifth, as Old Bridge hurt themselves with errors.  Liam Williams singled and Kyle McCauley reached on an E5.  After a popup by Justin Mangano, Lollin – who moved to first after being relieved by Lucas White – laced a 1-0 pitch for a double to drive in two, making it 5-4 Falcons.

Then, they would add a much-needed insurance run in the top of the seventh with the aid of two more Old Bridge errors.  Zach Wallace reached on an E5 and then scored three batters later with two outs when Mangano reached on another bad throw by third baseman Dom Botte, making it 6-4.

But in the bottom of the seventh, Old Bridge had its chances and made it interesting, with Field sticking with White no matter what.

Facing the top of the order, White gave up a lead off shingle to John Smith.  Criss Crosta walked.  After Frank Papeo struck out, Hascup singled in a run to cut it to 6-5.  Penkala then grounded to first, and Lollin, now playing there, three home and the catcher Mangano tagged out Hascup at the plate. 

But with the only runner on base now being Penkala on first, white was able to focus on the hitter Evan Smith, and struck him out looking on three pitches to end the game and set off a wild celebration in front of the pitchers’ mound.

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

Monroe winning pitcher Lucas White
Monroe head coach Sean Field
by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe, GMCT champ Old Bridge will play for a third time, with winner going to CJ4 title game

The Old Bridge and Monroe baseball teams already have played twice this season. And while the Knights won both, both were close.

The first meeting was an epic, ten-inning affair, won by Old Bridge when Michael Altman drove in Frank Papeo – long out of the game as the starting pitcher – drive in the game winning run in the bottom of the tenth at Fred Cole Field.

The second was a 4-1 Knights’ win back in Monroe.

They’ll meet for a third time Friday in Old Bridge in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. The Knights are the top-seed and defending champion, while Monroe is the fifth-seed.

First pitch is set for 5 pm, with pregame at 4:45 from Fred Cole Field. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action; click here to listen.

That April/May regular season series was one everyone had circled on their calendars to potentially decide the GMC’s Red Division. As it turned out, a sweep of Old Bridge the week before by South Plainfield took care of that, and the Tigers wound up winning the Red.

But in the state playoffs? Both Old Bridge and South Plainfield – who met in the GMC Finals, with the Knights taking the title – both got top seeds in different sections. And now, Old Bridge (20-8) is a win away from going to its second straight sectional title game, and having a chance to win back to back titles.

But hold the phone for a second. Monroe (15-9) is no slouch. The Falcons have won six straight games since a narrow, 2-1 first-round loss to North Brunswick in the GMC Tournament. They came back with a vengeance, beating Edison 12-1 in a regular season game, then topping Toms River South, Manasquan and Metuchen before earning wins over two GMC Red Division teams in the Central Jersey Group 4 playoffs – East Brunswick and South Brunswick – to get to the semis.

Justin Hascup (6-1, 1.99 ERA) is expected to get the start for Old Bridge, while Harrison Lollin (1-1, 1.67 ERA) will go for Monroe.

Hascup didn’t pitch in either game between the two this season; in fact, the senior has never faced Monroe in a three-year varsity career.

Lollin took the loss in the 4-1 defeat on May 2nd, allowing three earned runs on six hits in five innings, striking out seven and walking three. He did get the win last year in a 2-0 regular season victory over Old Bridge, and got the win in a 7-1 victory over the Knights on the road in 2022. In those two career appearances, he’s thrown 11 2/3 innings, allowing just five hits and one earned run, striking out 22 and walking just five.

Click below to hear previews with both head coaches:

Matt Donaghue, Old Bridge
Sean Field, Monroe

by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe looks to take step up with veteran team, solid pitching back in ’24

In the 2023 high school baseball season, Monroe made it to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals on a whale of a pitching performance by Lucas White.

The junior threw a no-hitter in the quarters to beat South Brunswick, but the journey ended in the semis with a 2-1 loss to North Brunswick.

While the Raiders – and eventual champion St. Joseph-Metuchen – lost oodles of talent, yet still have a good amount coming back, that’s not the case at Monroe this year.

The Falcons will be a veteran group in 2024, and nowhere is that more prevalent than on the pitching staff. Monroe returns the vast majority of its inningsf, starting with Harrison Lollin (1.42 ERA, 83 K, 16 BB in 59 1/3 IP), then trickling down to Lucas White and Zack Wallace, among others.

The thing is, White and Lollin can hit, too. Lollin hit .375 with one home run and a team-leading 15 RBIs on the year, while White hit .347 with 13 runs batted in. They had the best two batting averages on last year’s team.

The goal is to see that translate into wins instead of close losses like last season. To wit: in a 1-4 start that saw a loss to St. Joe’s, a loss to East Brunswick, and two losses to North Brunswick, three of those defeats were by a single run, 3-2 to the Falcons, 1-0 to the Raiders, and 6-5 to the Bears.

They also lost five other one-run games the rest of the year, including 2-1 in the GMC Tournament semis to North Brunswick, and again, 4-3 to the Raiders in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals in the NJSIAA state tournament.

If Monroe can flip that script, the Falcons could be in for a very special year.

Click below to hear Monroe head coach Sean Field talk about the Falcons’ 2024 season:

by Mike Pavlichko

Pitching and defense the key for Monroe ahead of GMCT semifinal

Ask fourth-year head coach Sean Field if there was an inflection point in his team’s season or any notable reason for the turnaround and you’ll get a pretty casual “not really.”

Monroe was 1-4 following a walk-off loss to East Brunswick on April 13. Since then, the Falcons have won 10-of-12 and will play for the school’s first GMC final appearance since 2017 on Saturday.

“I’ve always had a good feeling about this team,” Field said. “Even when we were 1-4, I kept telling the guys, ‘I’m really proud of you. Just keep punching, and eventually we’re going to break through.'”

Break through, they have.

Last Saturday, in their first GMC Tournament game, the fourth-seeded Falcons (11-6) handled Piscataway, 7-0, behind a 13-strikeout, 3-hit shutout from junior Harrison Lollin.

In the quarterfinals Wednesday, junior Lucas White tossed a no-hitter, striking out 10 in the 1-0 win over South Brunswick.

In 14 GMC Tournament innings, Monroe pitchers have allowed three hits, no runs, and struck out 23 opposing batters. Lollin, who has a 1.35 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 41.1 innings this season, will get the ball again for Monroe this Saturday.

WATCH: Here’s the final out of Lucas White’s no-hitter in the GMC Tournament semifinals

“You know you’re always in it,” Field said. “You know you’re always going to send somebody out there who is going to give you a quality start. Hitting will get you through the regular season, but come playoff time, it really comes down to pitching and defense.”

The Falcons will look to keep home plate untouched against top-seeded North Brunswick (13-5) at East Brunswick Magnet School’s Ray Cipperly Field in the second game of a doubleheader you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio, driven by Auto Lounge of Edison.

Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action with first pitch set for 2:30. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear a preview of Monroe in the GMC Tournament semifinals from head coach Sean Field: