Starter Will Buchan threw five shutout innings of one-hit ball, and drove in the only run eighth-seed Spotswood needed in the top of the first, en route to a 4-0 win over 16-seed South River in the Jim Muldowney GMC Championship Tournament quarterfinals, earning the Chargers’ their first trip to the semis since 2018.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino call all the action, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio from Spotswood High School on May 16, 2025.
Whenever Julius Rosado is on the mound for South River, they have a chance to beat just about anyone. Just like they did in Monday’s first-round, where they knocked off top-seed Woodbridge.
And he was sharp Thursday afternoon against 8th-seed Spotswood in the Jim Muldowney GMC Championship Tournament quarterfinals, but the defense was another story, with four errors proving costly for the 16th-seeded Rams.
The result was a 4-0 Charger win that puts them in the GMCT semifinals for the first time since 2018.
Spotswood (14-8) got on the board in the top of the first. With one out, Carter Cumiskey singled, then Will Buchan doubled to left, with the ball landing in front of left fielder Brendan Lell, then bouncing over his head and going all the way to the wall, allowing Cumiskey to score.
For the next four innings, Buchan – the starting pitcher – was sharp as well, allowing just one baserunner through four – on a walk – before giving up the first hit of the game to the Rams in the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, the Chargers would add another run.
Steve Henits singled but reached second after the ball was momentarily bobbled by the left fielder Lell. After a sac bunt turned into an infield hit for Steve Henits, Cumiskey drove him in with a sac fly to left.
Spotswood head coach Glenny Fredricks brought in sophomore Leo Carone for the fifth, and he promptly got in trouble. He walked Sebastian Deerson, Jimmy Sanchez and Rosado to load the bases. But even quicker than he got into trouble, he got out of it. James Zsorey grounded to first, but Cumiskey came home and got the force out there, though catcher Brandon Rivera tagged Deerson, thinking Cumiskey might have stepped on first and tried to turn two.
The next batter – Hunter Krainski – grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to rescue Carone.
Spotswood got two more insurance runs in the bottom of the inning to make it 4-0. With one out, John Lubin reached on an infield hit. Gavin Romeo tried to advance him with a bunt, but also reached on a base hit, when the third baseman Lell had to avoid Rosado – who also tried to field the ball off the mound – before he could throw to first.
Seb Saracino then hit a ball to short, and while Zsorey tried to turn two, the throw went into center field, scoring Lubin. Then a bloop hit by Henits brought in Romeo.
In the seventh, Saracino came on to pitch, and almost got into the same trouble Carone did in the sixth. He walked the first two batters, but then got Lell to hit into a 5-3 double-play. And after another walk to Travis Maloney, Deerson struck out to end the ball game.
Spotswood will face the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between 5-seed St. Joseph-Metuchen and 13-seed Metuchen in one of Saturday’s semifinals at East Brunswick Magnet School, both of which can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
South River falls to 14-6 with the loss, which went to Rosado. Buchan improved to 4-0 with the win.
Click below for postgame reaction from Spotswood starting pitcher Will Buchan and head coach glenny Fredricks, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
Some years, you can have a pretty good idea who’s a favorite to win the county tournament. Others it’s wide open.
This year may be as wide open as any other in the Greater Middlesex Conference, following a first round Monday that saw four extra-inning games, five one-run games, two decided by just two runs, and four “upsets.”
We put upsets in quotes there because they might not really be. In a league where no one has been utterly dominant, and teams have beaten up on each other, there’s much parity in the GMC, and that has continued into the Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament.
The event hits the quarterfinals – the round of eight – Wednesday at North Brunswick Community Park, but only if the weather cooperates. And it’s not just a matter of whether it will be raining at game time, it’s more about how much rain fell Tuesday, and how much more will on Wednesday, and whether the natural grass fields can take all that water.
The GMC has said if the games can’t be played Wednesday, they would shoot for Thursday at Community Park, and if that’s not feasible, games would go to higher seeds, or fields with turf. That would leave Spotswood hosting, as the high seed, as they have turf, but could leave St. Joseph of Metuchen and St. Thomas Aquinas – both higher seeds, but both with grass fields – playing on the road at Metuchen and Edison, respectively, both of whom have turf. Middlesex and South Plainfield both have grass, and could host, or find another school at which to play.
Regardless, we know the matchups, and at some point, they will play, with the winners advancing to Saturday (maybe – the weekend weather is another story) and the semifinals at East Brunswick Magnet School. So, scroll through for our preview of the quarterfinals.
(8) Spotswood (13-8) vs. (16) South River (14-5)
4 pm on Field 2 (Listen Live on CJSR)
Announcers: Dom Savino and Dylan Allen
This is an old-fashioned rivalry here, as Spotswood students used to attend South River High School up until Spotswood opened its own building in 1976. Yes, it’s been almost 50 years, but the rivalry is still strong.
These are two of the veteran mentors in Middlesex County. Mike Lepore Jr. of the Rams is now in his 28th season, while Glenny Fredricks of the Chargers is in his 21st, and both coaches are over the 300-win mark. In fact, both cracked that milestone in 2024, Fredericks first, in a 10-6 win over Paulsboro on April 19th of last year, then Lepore, in a 12-1 win over Princeton on May 21st.
But this one isn’t about the coaches. It’s about some really good baseball players.
Spotswood won’t throw senior Carter Cumiskey – their ace who beat Monroe back on Monday in the opening round, but he can do plenty of damage at the plate. On a team hitting .271 as a group, he’s at .425 with 16 RBIs and three homers. Fellow senior Will Buchan is hitting .338, second on the team, but leads the Chargers with 17 runs batted in and four home runs.
On the other side, South River has an ace pitcher who can blast the ball as well. While Cumiskey is going to Seton Hall, senior Julius Rosado will be headed to Rutgers in the fall. The senior, like Cumiskey, is also an excellent shortstop. That’s where he’ll play for Steve Owens, and he’s been relied upon a bit less this year, with James Zsorey, getting the workload of a No. 1 starter. He gave up one run in 8 2/3 innings Monday in the Rams’ 2-1, nine-inning win over top-seed Woodbridge Monday, the first team to knock off a No. 1 seed in the first round of the GMCs since JFK upset top-seed Monroe in in 2021.
Back to Rosado’s offensive prowess, he’s hitting close to .500 on the year: .474 with 25 RBIs – tied for the team lead with Zsorey – while hitting three home runs, tied with junior Hunter Krainski. He also leads the team in extra base hits, with 15, including eight doubles and four triples. What’s ironic is that this isn’t even his best year at the plate. He hit .594 last season – 120 points higher – and is a career .544 hitter.
South River has won six straight games, their best stretch of the season, including a play-in round game last Saturday, a 13-1 win over South Brunswick. Spotswood has won nine of its last 12, with their most recent defeats coming by a single run – 1-0 at Florence, 2-1 at Allentown – prior to GMC Tournament play.
Spotswood, meanwhile, has won six straight against South River, the Rams’ last won in 2021, sweeping the season series. Ironically, the two were scheduled to play Thursday in a regular season crossover. If Wednesday gets rained out, they’ll still play on Thursday, but it’ll be their GMCT game.
Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches:
(3) St. Thomas Aquinas (13-6) vs. (11) Edison (11-9)
7 pm on Field 2 (Listen Live on CJSR)
Announcers: Dom Savino and Dylan Allen
This one has two of the three high schools based in Edison, how can you go wrong here? St. Thomas Aquinas is the GMC White Division champion, and last year won the Non-Public North B title, falling in the state Group B championship game to powerhouse Gloucester Catholic. This year, along with Spotswood, they moved up to the White, and have had great success.
But the Trojans almost didn’t get here. They trailed 14-seed North Plainfield 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh in Monday’s first round, but won it in walk-off fashion with a pair of bases loaded walks. Hitting .302 as a team, they’re led by senior Jack Valenzuela at .391, while fellow senior Donovan Epps is among six players with at least ten RBIs; he has 16 to lead the team. Louis Rizzolo also is a factor offensively, leading the team in runs scored with 23, doubles with 16, and walks with 17, while also swiping a team-best ten stolen bases.
Edison is led by Robert Roma, who’s hitting .375 with a team-best 17 RBIs, seven doubles and 18 walks. He’s an ace pitcher, but right up there with him is Connor Murphy, though even he won’t get the start in the quarters. That’s going to go to Braydon Roma – Robert’s younger brother, a freshman – who is 1-4 with a 3.80 ERA, but just hasn’t gotten much run support. Of the five games he’s pitched that Edison has lost, three of those games saw the Eagles score two or fewer runs, and one of those was a shutout at Woodbridge.
Edison has won five straight coming in, including a 2-1 win in 12 innings at sixth-seed Old Bridge in Monday’s first round, as the elder Roma got the game-winning hit. St. Thomas lost to Old Bridge, 8-5, in their last game before the GMCs, but went on a seven-game win streak over an eleven-day span in mid- to late-April.
These two don’t regularly play each other, although the Trojans did play up twice to the GMC Red this year, and – in addition to the loss to Old Bridge last Thursday – they also fell 13-11 to East Brunswick two Friday’s ago
Click below to hear pregame interviews with both head coaches:
(5) St. Joseph-Metuchen (11-6) vs. (13) Metuchen (15-6)
4 pm on Field 1 (Follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)
After a down year last season and just seven wins, new head coach Dennis McCaffery – who came over from Cranford after stepping down there at the end of last season – has the Falcons back on track. The might be playing their best baseball of the year, on their longest winning streak of 2025, now at five games heading into the quarterfinals. They needed nine innings to get past 12-seed Sayreville on Monday in the first round, on an RBI single by Walter Christian to walk it off.
The Falcons are a good-hitting team, batting .331 on the year, with three hitting over .400 this season. Junior Kris Almanzar leads the pack at .455, while senior Bobby Christensen is at .400 with 15 runs batted in. Luke Palermo is hitting .423, and has knocked in 18 runs, while senior JP Zayle has a team-high 19 RBIs and is hitting .447 on the year.
The pitching staff has a 3.39 ERA, so Joe’s is getting the job done on both ends, and McCaffery will have a number of options against the Bulldogs.
As for Metuchen, they had lost three straight heading into the GMCT. While that’s certainly not ideal, they won two games in the tourney to get here, beating 20-seed South Amboy 13-0 in a ten-run rule play-in game, then knocking off fourth-seed East Brunswick out of the Red, 7-6 in nine innings on Monday in the first round.
And the Bulldogs can hit and pitch, too. Battig .343 asa a team, junior Simon Rosal is hitting .457 with 13 runs batted in, and fellow junior Matt Jelleme is hitting .456 with 18 RBIs. As a team, with 167 runs scored, they’re one of just two Blue Division teams who’ve scored more than 100, so they can put up some runs. On the mound, they have an ERA well under three, at 2.55 for the team, with four pitchers having ERAs below that mark.
They’re 1-2 against the Red this year, with losses to Edison and Monroe besides Monday’s win over East Brunswick, which finished higher than both the Eagles and Falcons in the division. Go figure?
These two teams rarely play each other, with Metuchen being a Group 2 and Joe’s being a large school, but they have met twice in the last 13 years, with the Falcons winning both: 12-2 in the GMCT second round in 2023, and 4-3 in the GMCT first round in 2012.
(2) South Plainfield (13-8) vs. (11) Middlesex (14-4)
7 pm on Field 1 (Follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)
This might be one of the best games of the day. Despite the double-digit seed, Middlesex appears to be again in the mold of its late 2010s and 2021 team, the latter of which won Central Jersey Group 1 and the Group 1 championship, winning all of its final three games in its final at bat, including the Group semi over Woodstown on a walk-off grand slam by Bobby Ulmer, and in 13 innings in the state final against New Providence.
And if you’re still not convinced, last week, the Blue Jays went up to Delbarton to face the No. 7 team in the state, and came away with a 5-3 win. Impressed now?
They scrap, and that was they way they won their first-round game, knocking off the 7-seed Colonia. (Lucky 7s?) Against the Patriots, they manufactured runs. Their first came on a single to right that Dylan Ianiero tried to extend to a double, and though he was out, in the confusion, it allowed Dom Parenti to score after initially holding on third. And in the sixth, after Parenti walked to lead off the inning, he took advantage on a miscue in centerfield and scored all the way from first on what turned out to be an Ianiero single, and a two-base error.
But it’s the pitching that may be most impressive. The team ERA is 1.68, led by Chris Kozak – whose older brother, Aiden, played on the 2021 title team. He’s got an ERA of just 0.89, and then there’s sophomore Dom Long at 1.37 – with 39 Ks to 19 walks – who’s picked up the second most innings on the team behind Kozak.
South Plainfield was the Red Division champ last year, and the top seed in the GMCT, but lost in the finals to Old Bridge. This year, they finished second to Woodbridge, but beat the Barrons twice in the regular season.
The Tigers are hitting a respectable .265 on the year, with the highlight being Dom Massaro, a junior batting .405 on the season with one of the team’s two home runs – senior Dave Butrico has the other – and 14 RBIs. Aiden McCarthy – also an excellent pitcher – has a team-high 20 RBIs, while also leading the Tigers with a whopping 21 walks. And these guys steal bases, very aggressive on the base paths; senior Nick Irizarry has 30 on a team that has 77 swipes. (Middlesex, which also is aggressive on the bases, has 43 by comparison.)
And though the team ERA is a solid 3.15, the guys who’ve thrown the bulk of the innings are well under three. Mike Castagna, Jayden Jiminez, McCarthy and Kevin Penny all give head coach Scott Gleichenhaus piece of mind when they take the mound.
South Plainfield had lost three straight heading into the GMC before an 11-0 first round win over 15-seed Perth Amboy (in 5 innings), while Middlesex is red hot, on an eight-game winning streak. Besides the stunner over Delbarton, they also beat 10-10 North Hunterdon out of the Skyland Conference’s Delaware Division, among the best in the state, on Senior Night last week at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater. The Lions are scheduled to play Hunterdon Central Wednesday in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament final.
Though not often in the same division, the two play fairly frequently. South Plainfield has won six straight against Middlesex, dating back to 2015. Middlesex last won in 2013, and they last met in the GMC Quarterfinals in 2012. The Blue Jays – the third-seed – took that meeting, 5-0, and went on to win the county championship, beating No. 1 seed Sayreville 10-4 in the final.
When the Jim Muldowney GMC Championship Tournament was seeded Friday, as the room emptied, the thinking was this could be as wide open a tournament as ever. And if Monday’s results in the first round were any indication, that assessment was spot on.
Four of the eight games resulted in upsets, headlined by 16th-seed South River knocking off GMC Red Division champion and top-seed Woodbridge, 2-1, in nine innings. Three other games also went extras, two ending in upsets, featuring wins by 13-seed Metuchen and 11-seed Edison. St. Joseph-Metuchen also won in extras. Five games were decided by a single run, two by one run.
Now, you might wonder when the last time was that a No. 1 seed in the GMC Tournament got knocked off in the first round. Well, it wasn’t that long ago. In fact, it wasn’t even before COVID.
In 2021, 16th-seed JFK beat top-seed Monroe 5-4 in the first round, but fell 8-2 to 9-seed North Brunswick in the quarterfinals. Read our story and hear from then-Kennedy skipper Tim Ballard here.
Here’s a full recap of Monday afternoon’s action, with winners moving on to the quarterfinal round at North Brunswick Community Park. That’s scheduled for Wednesday, but with rain in the forecast, that could get pushed off to Thursday.
For now, several GMC teams are enjoying their big wins. Here’s the full roundup:
(16) South River 2, (1) Woodbridge 1 (9 inn.): Everyone knows the kind of pitcher Julius Rosado has been, but his innings have been somewhat limited, and he won his longest outing of the year Saturday in the play-in round, a 13-1 win over South Brunswick. That put James Zsorey on the mound, and the Rams’ ace (1a and 1b with Rosado) didn’t disappoint. He allowed just one run through 8 2/3 innings, but more on that later.
South River (14-5) got on the board in the top of the first when Noah Borrero walked with the bases loaded to take a 1-0 lead, but that’s all they would get for a while. Meanwhile, Woodbridge (13-5) scored in the bottom of the third when Ryan Leach grounded to shortstop. Rosado got the force at second, but when they tried to turn two, an error on the first baseman allowed Gavin Slicner to score. No one could get on the board for the next five innings. But in the top of the ninth, South River loaded the bases, and a walk brought in Borrero to make it 2-1. The Barrons got first and third with two out in the ninth, and the pitch count meant Zsorey had to exit. In came Brendan Lell, and on one pitch, he got Xavier Diaz to ground out back to him to end the game and set off a wild celebration.
Click below to hear South River head coach Mike Lepore, Jr., talk about the win:
South River will move on to play eight-seed Spotswood at 4 pm on Field 2 Wednesday at North Brunswick Community Park.
(8) Spotswood 3, (9) Monroe 1: The Chargers (13-8) led 3-0 after two, and starter Carter Cumiskey allowed just one run the rest of the way on three hits in a six-inning effort that Will Buchan closed out for the save. Buchan was at the plate for the first two runs, as Ryan Orth scored on a wild pitch while he was batting, then Buchan drove in Steve Spisso with a sac fly to center. They added one more in the third on an RBI single by Cumsikey. The Falcons (8-11) got a run on a groundout in the fifth, but that was all they could muster against Cumiskey. Spotswood faces 16-seed South River at 4 pm on Field 2 at North Brunswick Community Park on Wednesday.
(5) St. Joseph-Metuchen 1, (12) Sayreville 0 (8 inn.): The Falcons (11-6) won it in walk-off fashion on a single in the eighth inning by Walter Christian, who finished the day 2-for-4. Richard Zangara got the win for the Falcons, going the distance, allowing just four hits through eight, walking two and striking out ten. The Falcons will move on to face 13-seed Metuchen in the 4 pm quarterfinal on Field 1 at North Brunswick Community Park on Wednesday afternoon. Sayreville drops to 7-12 with the loss.
(13) Metuchen 7, (4) East Brunswick 6 (9 inn.): The Bulldogs pulled off the second small school upset of a big school Monday. We’ll have more details on this game as they become available. The Bulldogs will play another Red Division school, St. Joseph from right down the road, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at North Brunswick Community Park, at 4 pm on Field 1.
(3) St. Thomas Aquinas 5, (14) North Plainfield 4: The Trojans (13-6) came from two runs down in their final at bat to pull out a first round win over a game Canucks squad. Down 4-3, two singles by Jack Valenzeula and Adrian Sanchez and a hit batter – Declan DiCarlo – after a fly ball out loaded the bases with two down. That’s when Lucas Cassino, down 1-2 in the count, worked out a seven-pitch walk to bring in Valenzuela to tie the game. Harrison Eng then walked on five pitches to end the game. North Plainfield falls to 12-6 on the season, and St. Thomas moves on to play in-town rival and 11-seed Edison in the quarterfinals at North Brunswick Community Park, Wednesday at 7 pm on Field 2.
(11) Edison 2, (6) Old Bridge 1 (12 innings): The Eagles (11-9) pushed past the Knights (11-9) in the longest game of the day, a marathon at Fred Cole Field. Each team scored a run in the third, and that’s where it stayed for nine innings until Edison got one across in the top of the seventh and held off Old Bridge in the bottom of the inning for the win. Ray Tavarez got the win in relief for the Eagles, while John Smith took the loss for the Knights. Robert Roma went 3-for-3 with an RBI for Edison, with Dom Innocenti knocking in the go-ahead run in the 12th on a base hit up the middle. Edison gets St. Thomas Aquinas in Wednesday’s 7 pm quarterfinal on Field 2 at North Brunswick Community Park.
Click below to listen to Edison head coach Vinnie Abene talk about the Eagles’ win:
(10) Middlesex 3, (7) Colonia 1: This one lived up to the hype, with the two teams splitting the season series by a grand total of three runs. Read the full story and hear postgame reaction here. The Blue Jays will move on to play second-seed South Plainfield in the 7 pm quarterfinal on Field 1 at North Brunswick Community Park this Wednesday.
(2) South Plainfield 11, (15) Perth Amboy 0 (5 inn.): Aiden McCarthy brought the hammer Monday at the plate and on the mound in a rout of the Canucks (5-11), going 2-for-3 with four runs batted in, in a mercy-rule 5-inning game. The Tigers (13-8) got six in the second and five in the third to cruise to the win as McCarthy scattered two hits over five innings of work. The win puts South Plainfield in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at North Brunswick Community Park, at 7 pm on Field 1.
WEDNESDAY’S QUARTERFINAL ROUND:
All games at North Brunswick Community Park
4 PM Games
(5) St. Joseph-Metuchen (11-6) vs. (13) Metuchen (15-6) on Field 1 (follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)
(8) Spotswood (13-8) vs (16) South River (14-5) on Field 2 (LIVE on CJSR)
7 PM Games
(2) South Plainfield (13-8) vs. (10) Middlesex (14-4) on Field 1 (follow Alec Crouthamel on Twitter for updates)
(3) St. Thomas Aquinas (13-6) vs. (11) Edison (11-9) (LIVE on CJSR)
NOTE: Saturday’s semifinals are at 12 and 2:30 pm at Ray Cipperly Field at East Brunswick Magnet School. The highest remaining seed will play in the 2:30 game.
The full first round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament is set, as South River, Perth Amboy, North Plainfield, and Metuchen moved on with play-in round wins on Saturday afternoon.
Monday’s first round will feature all 16 remaining teams, with the winners moving on to Wednesday’s Quarterfinals at North Brunswick Community Park, where Central Jersey Sports Radio will have full coverage including play-by-play of two of those games.
(16) South River 13, (17) South Brunswick 1 (5 inn.)
Julius Rosado got the nod and went the distance, allowing just one hit and striking out eleven en route to a ten-run rule, five-inning win. Rosado also was two-for-three with two RBIs as the Rams worked out eleven walks against Viking pitchers. All but one South River batter scored a run in the game and four scored twice in two big innings; the Rams got seven across in the second and four in the sixth after South Brunswick got its only run in the top of the inning.
South River (13-5) now has won five straight and moves on to play at top-seed and Red Division champion Woodbridge Monday afternoon at 4:15. South Brunswick falls to 3-16.
(13) Metuchen 13, (20) South Amboy 0 (5 inn.)
The Bulldogs scored in all four innings in which they hit in a mercy rule-shortened game, getting one in the first and exploding for an eight-spot in the second before plating two more runs each in the third and fourth en route to the shutout. Junior Lucas Malamung went the distance in the win, scattering five hits and striking out six. He also went 2-for-3 at the plate, knocking in three runs, including a two-run single in the big second inning.
South Amboy fall to 5-12. Metuchen (14-6) snaps a three-game skid with the win, and moves on to visit four-seed East Brunswick Monday at 4:15 pm.
(14) North Plainfield 2, (19) JFK 0
The Canucks scrambled for one run apiece in the third and sixth innings to claw out a home win over the Mustangs at Krausche Field. Tommy Zotollo drove in the first run with a two-out double, scoring Victor Ceda, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. The insurance run came in the sixth on an Iam Lameira double, scoring Zotollo. Meanwhile, starter Bennie Sokolowski went the distance, allowing just three hits in seven innings of work, striking out 12 in a whitewash of the Mustangs, who fall to 9-9.
North Plainfield (12-5) moves on to play at third-seed St. Thomas Aquinas in North Edison Monday at 4:00 Monday afternoon.
(15) Perth Amboy 10, (18) Carteret 0
The Panthers blew up for five runs in the second, for more in the fourth, and one more to walk it off in the sixth with a ten-run rule win over the Ramblers. Chris Rodriguez, Yendy Tomas each knocked in two runs for Perth Amboy, with Rodriguez going 4-for-4. Justin Foy threw six solid innings, needing only 78 pitches to get the win, striking out nine while walking none.
Carteret drops to 8-9 on the season. Perth Amboy (5-1) will visit second-seed South Plainfield Monday afternoon a 4:00.
Here’s the full schedule of First Round games Monday in the GMC Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament:
With the Greater Middlesex Conference seeding the Jim Muldowney Championship and Ray Cipperly Invitational on Friday – with Woodbridge getting the overall top seed – the Championship tourney will get underway Saturday with the play-in round, while the Invitational will kick off on Tuesday.
Here’s a look at the four Saturday games in the Championship bracket, including a look ahead to who’s next. Scroll to the end for the first round Invitational matchups.
(17) South Brunswick (3-15) at (16) South River (12-5), 12 pm: This is the type of game that’s impossible to pick, a double-digit team from the Blue Division against a Red Division team with just three overall wins, and one in its own division. The Red has been competitive just about from top-to-bottom, with six of the eight teams cracking the ten-win mark, and besides South Brunswick, Monroe has eight victories. So, it’s tough to tell. Couple that with the fact that the Rams have one of the top pitchers in the league in Julius Rosado, who will be playing not far away at Rutgers next Spring. Does Mike Lepore throw him Saturday, since you have to win that game to advance? Does he save him for Monday’s first round against top-seed and GMC Red champion Woodbridge – in which he would give the South River a fighting chance – but risk not getting a win Saturday, leaving him on the table? Or does he start him, cap him at 50 pitches, allowing him to only take one-day rest, leaving him with 90 against the Barrons? Rosado has only thrown 90 or more pitches once this year, in a 4-3 win over JP Stevens on April 23rd, and he hasn’t thrown more than 25 in four appearances since. Maybe this is what they’ve been saving him for? The Vikings have struggled at the plate, hitting just .227 on the season, and only Timothy Christian (21) has scored fewer runs that South Brunswick, which has 49, as does North Brunswick (2-13). The winner travels to face the Barrons Monday.
(19) JFK (9-8) at (14) North Plainfield (10-5), 12 pm: Here’s two teams more on a par with each other in an all-Blue Division matchup. And this one could be a toss-up. Kennedy gotten some good pitching, but little run support. The workloads have gone to junior Myles Ulaky (1.83 ERA) and Grant Lorentzen, who has allowed just one earned run, four overall, all season in 36 1/3 innings pitched for a barely-noticeable 0.19 ERA. North Plainfield is on its first losing streak of the year – just two games – showing how solid a season they’ve had. The Canucks have gotten decent pitching – with a team ERA of just 2.23 – but they’re hitting just .204 on the year, with no single player batting better than .300 on the season. The winner goes to GMC White champ and third-seed St. Thomas Aquinas Monday.
(18) Carteret (8-8) at (15) Perth Amboy (4-10), 12 pm: Is the fact that the Panthers have just four wins in the white and the Ramblers eight wins in the Blue an equalizer? Sometimes, when comparing teams from different divisions, the GMC seeding committee considers what one team might do in the other division. Add in that this is a classic rivalry – their all-time football series having been the longest running in Middlesex County – and this should be a good one. Perth Amboy comes in strong. After a 3-10 start, the Panthers have won three straight: two over North Brunswick and one over South Brunswick. They scored just 12 runs on that eight game skid, but have scored an average of ten over the last three games, hitting .337 in that span. And it doesn’t matter the opponent, baseball people know hitting is contagious. Yet, the Ramblers will be a tougher opponent. Winners of five of their last seven, Carteret is hitting a healthy .283 and led by senior Eric Thompson, batting .370, while Joneil Martinez has knocked in a team-best 12 runs and is hitting .345 on the year. The winner goes to No. 2 South Plainfield Monday.
(20) South Amboy (5-11) at (13) Metuchen (13-6), 2 pm: It’s an all-Blue Division matchup between the sixth-place Governors and the pennant-winning Bulldogs. South Amboy is hitting .278 as a team, led by senior Benjamin Smith, batting .434, tied for a team-high in RBIs with Jeremy Vasquez, who also has five of the Guvs’ seven home runs. Pitching has been an issue, with a team ERA just over six, and no single pitcher lower than a 4.43 ERA. Metuchen is an interesting story. They were 11-2 before May first, but have lost four of their last five and three straight, although two of those losses came to Red Division foes in Edison (a 4-3 loss) and Monroe (a 7-2 defeat). Metuchen is the beat-hitting team of the eight in the play-in round (as well as the highest-seeded, so maybe they should be?) and has just a 2.62 team ERA, with a number of options to choose from on a staff that doesn’t have a single senior and is dominated by juniors. The winner gets four-seed East Brunswick on the road Monday.
GMC RAY CIPPERLY INVITATIONAL – 1st ROUND
TUESDAY, MAY 13
We’re exactly two weeks from the NJSIAA cutoff for the state playoffs – May 17th – and teams across the area continue to jockey for position in the standings. Here’s a closer look beyond the numbers at where teams stand and what their chances are, based on NJ.com’s official standings as of games played on May 2nd. For a full explanation of the new power point formula, click here.
Central Jersey Group 2: We’ve got three Central Jersey Sports Radio area teams in this section, and two moved up while one went down in the past week. Governor Livingston (14-0, 33.467 power points) is going to be the No. 1 seed, no doubt about that. The No. 2 ranked team in the state – behind only Gloucester Catholic – has a more than 11-point lead over No. 2 Delran. Neither they, nor anyone else, will get even close to the Highlanders.
The highest area team is South River, which went since our last update and dropped one place to No. 7. At 9-5, they have 19.67 power points, and we think could finish as high as No. 3 if they can finish strong; just 1.186 points behind third-place Robbinsville. Then again, four teams behind them all are are at 19 power points or higher, so a few slip-ups and they could easily fall out of the top eight, and lose even one first round home game. But right behind them is East Brunswick Magnet (15-2, 19.631). The Tigers – who have won five straight – went from tenth place to No. 8. But like the Rams, they could just as easily pull into the top four as they could slip out of the top eight.
Spotswood (10-6, 17.787) also rose, edging up from 15 to 14 on the strength of a 3-1 week, and boosted by a win over Colonia Thursday. As long as the Chargers maintain, they should make the playoffs. We think there are no more than 17 teams with a shot in this section, and it’s highly unlikely all three teams behind Spotswood would catch them.
North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2: Passaic Valley (11-5, 22.511) remains in first, but has an even smaller lead now over second-place West Essex (9-4, 21.984). The only area team we have here is Bernards (7-8, 16.159), and the Mountaineers did themselves a big favor by going 3-1 since our last update, improving from 4-7 to 7-8. That moves them up two spots to tenth place this week, 2.62 points out of the top eight. That may be a stretch, but a couple more weeks like they had this past week could do it.
About 15 minutes before game time, when asked how he felt about his team this year so far, veteran South River skipper Mike Lepore Jr. seemed happy overall, but noted his team has struggled sometimes against good pitching.
Well, on Friday afternoon, they faced North Plainfield starter Ian Lamiera – who was 2-0 with a 0.70 ERA coming into the game – and got five runs in the first two innings, all of them unearned, en route to a 7-0 win at first place North Plainfield in GMC Blue Division action.
It all started in the top of the first, when Jeremiah Sanchez reached on a throwing error by Lamiera, then Rutgers-bound senior Julius Rosado knocked him in from first with a double off the wall in left-centerfield. Rosado stole second, and after James Zsorey struck out, Travis Maloney knocked him with a sac fly to left to make it 2-0. That play would have been the third out of the inning, so both runs were unearned.
In the second, the Rams picked up three more runs, and – again – they were all unearned. Starting pitcher Brendan Lell led off with a single, and after a strikeout, Dylan Pasion was hit by a pitch and Sanchez walked to load the bases. Rosado struck out for the second out of the inning, and then Zsorey hit a ball to second that was booted into right field. It should have been the third out, but plated two more runs.
With first and third, Zsorey tried to steal second with Maloney at the plate. The throw didn’t get him, but Sanchez came in to steal home without a throw to make it 5-0.
At that point, Lamiera settled down a bit for the Canucks, not allowing another hit – and only three more base runners – through the end of the fifth.
The Rams got two more insurance runs off him in the sixth. Sebastian Deerson walked to lead off the inning, then after two strikeouts, North Plainfield intentionally walked Rosado. Zsorey came up and promptly hit a hard triple that plate both before Maloney grounded out to second to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Lell was cruising on the mound. He allowed two first-inning hits – the second an infield hit on a knuckler off the end of the bat that ended up like a good bunt down the third base line – but Lell got a strikeout and two flyouts on ten pitches to get out of the inning.
Otherwise, he scattered a few walks, but didn’t allow another hit until the sixth. The Canucks actually loaded the bases after a one-out single and a hit batter, then a pop foul, as DH Jake Six singled to fill the bags, but Luis Ceda grounded back to Lell to end the threat.
Lell took the mound in the seventh looking like he would finish the game. In the seventh, he struck out the nine hitter to lead it off, but then walked Mark Fultz and gave up a single to Victor Ceda. Lepore made a change, and brought in the hard-throwing Zsorey from first to pitch, and he got Davyn Ciriaco to ground into what looked like a double play to short, but the throw to second was too late. He then got Tommy Zotollo to ground back to him, ending the game.
Lamiera fell to 0-2 with the loss, while Lell improved to 3-1 on the season and brought his ERA from just over five to a 3.55. It was his first shutout performance through at least four innings since a five-inning, 12-0 complete game shutout over East Brunswick Magnet on May 5, 2023, his freshman season.
For the time being, the win knocks North Plainfield (8-3 overall) into second in the GMC Blue Division at 8-3, one full game behind Metuchen (8-2, 7-3 Blue), pending its game at Piscataway Friday afternoon. It also gets the Rams to 7-3 in the division (8-3 overall), but they remain in third by a half-game with a game in hand on the Canucks, but with one extra game than Metuchen pending that Piscataway result. (We’ll update this once that score is reported.)
The Rams have two losses already to Metuchen, but the Bulldogs have two losses against North Plainfield. South River will rematch with the Canucks at home on Monday afternoon at 4 pm.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen with junir starting pitcher Brenden Lell and head coach Mike Lepore Jr.:
First, there was Zoran Milich stepping down, the only man ever to coach Montgomery High School football. That was back in Janaury, after a quarter century building and running the Cougars’ program.
This week, it was Dunellen’s Dave DeNapoli, who has been the Destroyers’ coach since 1996, stepping down after 29 years at the helm. A lifelong Dunellen resident, DeNapoli played quarterback there, graduating in 1975.
There are few left like these two. While many coaches have been around a long time – like Joe Goerge, who has had great success at places like Woodbridge last year, Franklin, South Brunswick and Dayton, where he completely restarted the program – few grow up, play and coach in the same time.
The last of their breed in our area would be Rich Marchesi, who has won well over 200 games and is the winningest coach in Rams’ history. This upcoming season will be his 29th on the sidelines.
We sat down with Central Jersey Sports Radio football analyst Marcus Borden to talk about DeNapoli’s retirement, Zoran Milich stepping aside, and the dedication these longtime coaches have shown to their football programs, their schools, and their communities. Click below to listen:
The matchup had a good storyline: Manville, with Edryn Morales ten points away from the 1,000 point club, facing the one of the state’s top scorers in South River’s Alex Grospe.
But Grospe injured his ankle against Spotswood Friday night, and was unable to give it a go Saturday afternoon at the Crusader College Showcase at Bound Brook. He’s day-to-day, and shouldn’t miss much time, but his teammates certainly missed him.
For Manville? Morales got his 1,000th point – on a free throw in the first quarter – and the Mustangs sailed past the Rams, 72-39, to improve to 8-3 on the season.
South River dropped to 6-6 with the loss.
Morales finished with 19 for Manville, while Josh D’Ambrosio led all scorers with 22 – including four triples – before his day was done.
Watch the video of Morales’ 1,000th point below, then scroll down for postgame reaction from Morales and Manville head coach Bill Rooney:
Click below for postgame reaction from Manville’s win over South River with senior Edryn Morales and head coach Bill Rooney:
