Monmouth-bound senior Connor Murphy threw a no-hitter, striking out 13, in a 4-0 win over St. Joseph-Metuchen in GMC Red Division action. It came seven years to the day after he tossed a no-no in the Fords Clara Barton Baseball League as a ten-year-old, a game in which he also struck out 13.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart call all the play-by-play live from Edison High School on April 14, 2026.
The last time Connor Muprhy threw a pitch against St. Joseph-Metuchen, J.P. Zayle sent it over the left field fence for a grand slam to walk off with the GMC Tournament Championship.
On Tuesday, he got some measure of revenge, with a complete-game, 13-strikeout no-hitter, in a 4-0 win for his 4th-ranked Eagles over the Falcons.
In a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, Murphy was simply masterful, mixing his fastball, change and breaking ball to keep St. Joe’s off balance. He allowed just four baserunners the entire afternoon – three on walks, one on a fielder’s choice – with two of them caught stealing by catcher Damian Calandra, the second of which erased Davis Labno to end the game.
It was a stellar afternoon for the senior, one of three D1 pitchers on the Edison roster; he’s going to Monmouth, while Robert Roma and Dom Innocenti will be heading to Wagner.
After a one-two-three first without a strikeout, Muprhy struck out the side in the second, got two strikeouts each in the third and fourth, struck out the side with a walk mixed in in the fifth, then added two more strikeouts in the sixth, and one in the seventh.
Ironically, it was seven years ago to the day Murphy also threw a no-hitter, when he was 10 years old playing in the Fords Clara Barton Baseball League. And, he had 13 strikeouts in that game as well.
Meanwhile, Edison – which has gotten balanced offense the first two weeks of the season – continued in that vein Tuesday to support Murphy’s stellar performance.
All four RBIs came from the top two-thirds of the lineup, while the first two runs came from the bottom third. Seven of the nine hitters in the order all figured in at least one run, either scoring or by driving them in.
The Eagles (6-1) got on the board in the third after getting just one baserunner on in the first two innings against Paul Rao, who took the loss for St. Joe’s (2-6). Isaiah Lutz led off with a walk, then went to third on a double by Damien Calandra. Leadoff hitter Darren Tirado scored him with a sac fly to center, and after Calandra went to third on a wild pitch, and a strikeout of Robert Roma, Dom Innocenti knocked him in with a single to make it 2-0.
And, after a walk to Sam Kentos, Ray Tavarez hit a ball through the wickets of second baseman Jon Boyke, allowing Innocenti to score and make it 3-0.
The Eagles added an insurance run in the sixth, when Sam Kentos singled to lead off. He went to second on passed ball, to third on a sac bunt by Ray Tavarez, who beat it out for a hit, then scored on a sac fly by DH Brayden Roma.
Click below for postgame reaction from Edison pitcher Connor Murphy and head coach Vinnie Abene with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
After starting the season 0-5, St. Joseph-Metuchen got off the schneid with back-to-back victories over East Brunswick. Falcons head coach Dennis McCaffery’s response to his squad’s slow start was fairly simple: “We’ve been consistently inconsistent.”
With two wins under its belt, St. Joes now faces a tough task ahead to extend its win streak to three games as they travel to face fourth-ranked Edison.
Tuesday will be a rematch of
You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart calling all the action. Pregame is set for 3:45 with first pitch at 4; click here to listen.
The Falcons graduated 12 seniors from their program last year, five of whom recorded 40 or more at-bats, three of whom pitched at least 30 innings, and, of course, the player responsible for the walk-off grand slam, Zayle.
Although seniority is a common theme for St. Joes both last year and this year, underclassmen Nicholas Yacykewych and Paul Rao have made their presence felt early.
So far on the young season, Yacykewych leads his squad with an impressive .385 batting average in 16 plate appearances. Rao, on the other hand, has made his mark on the mound, sporting a 3.27 ERA in fifteen innings of work, while recording a team-leading 10 punchouts on the mound.
While a three-game win streak may sound nice, McCaffery has only one thing on his mind entering Tuesday’s game.
“We don’t really worry about any past type of success or failure,” he said. “We try and just focus on that day and the whole mindset is one pitch, one out, one inning at a time.”
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart talk with St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Dennis McCaffery about the Falcons’ upcoming game with Edison:
It’s great when you start any season 5-0, but how you rebound after that first loss – whenever it happens – may say more about your team than your first five wins combined.
That will be the mindset for the Edison baseball team Tuesday afternoon – who took their first loss of the season, 2-0, at Monroe Saturday – when the fourth-ranked Eagles entertain St. Joseph-Metuchen in a rematch of last year’s Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament championship game.
You can hear the contest live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with pregame at 3:40 and first pitch at 4 pm with Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart on the call. Click here to listen.
One the one hand, the Eagles would love to forget that GMC title game, but on the other hand, they also want to remember it, the feeling of unfinished business. The Falcons – which had never led in any of their three prior GMC Tournament games last year – never led in that one either.
That is, until JP Zayle hit a first pitch grand slam to left field to win the game 7-4, completing an improbable run.
That lesson will be even more important since St. Joe’s comes into Tuesday’s game at 2-5. They started the year at No. 1 in the Bellamy & Son Paving Preseason Top Ten, but promptly fell all the way out, following an 0-4 start. They took one more loss, but then swept East Brunswick in a home-and-home and now are on a two-game winning streak.
Edison head coach Vinnie Abene is a veteran. He knows St. Joe’s is better than its 2-5 record. Asked if he’s seen why or how they were “struggling,” or if they actually aren’t, and it’s just life in the stacked GMC Red Division, Abene says – very matter-of-factly – “Mike, they’re not struggling.”
Well-put. And his team will find out when they meet on the red turf Tuesday morning. And what they’ll remember? No game in the Red Division is ever over until the final out is made.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Edison head coach Vinnie Abene about the Eagles’ upcoming game with St. Joseph-Metuchen:
You could look all the way back to the mid-80s, and the formation of the Greater Middlesex Conference, but it would be impossible to find a more thrilling run to the GMC Tournament title than St. Joseph-Metuchen had in 2025.
They were the five-seed, and won all four of their games in the tournament in their final at bat. Their lineup never faced a single pitch in the entire run while ahead in the game. And then won it on a walk-off grand slam by senior JP Zayle.
But there’s still more to do for the Falcons: win the GMC Red Division title, and win a sectional and state championship.
All those goals – plus the GMC Tournament – are on the table again for a St. Joe’s squad that will be playing its second year under veteran mentor Dennis McCaffery. He came in after spending nearly 30 years at Cranford, but there, he had elementary schools, middle schools and little league in town where he knew all the kids.
Last season was an exercise in getting to meet and learn about them all.
Now, he jumps in with a group he’s been around for more than a year.
Connor Walker is one of the top senior pitchers back – he only threw 12 innings last year – but there will be some younger arms McCaffery hopes will make an impact, whether they only got a handful of innings on varsity, pitched more on the jayvee squad, or are incoming freshmen.
With the weather in the Northeast during preseason camp, getting even a veteran staff ready to go outdoors often takes a while, sometimes a few weeks into the season.
Which leads us to the offense – which will lose guys like Zayle and Bobby Christensen, also middle infielders – but McCaffery likes having a half-dozen starters back, including left fielder Walter Christian (.333), centerfielder Kris Almanzar (.362), first-baseman Logan Ring (.300, 9 RBI), and third-baseman Owen Krulikowski (305).
Click below to hear St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Dennis McCaffery talk about the upcoming season for the Falcons with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
It’s never easy to predict how any high school team – in any sport – will do from year-to-year, what with graduation losses and unproven talent. The year before can be a guide, but who knows who a new group will respond, or if a new coach will reignite a program that struggled the year prior.
That said, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish, and last year’s teams will mainly get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the preseason Bellamy & Son Paving High School Basketball rankings.
Defending GMC Jim Muldowney Tournament Champion St. Joseph-Metuchen will begin the year at No. 1. Though the Falcons (16-7) lose a ton of pitching – more than 134 out of 161 innings pitched by Joseph Barca, Richard Zangara and Domenic Erbafina – the bats may be able to carry them until second-year veteran skipper Dennis McCaffery sees what his young pitching staff has. The Falcons won the GMCT last year as a five seed, taking all four games in their final at bat, and they never led for a single at bat in the entire run.
Last year’s Somerset County Tournament champion holds in second place, Immaculata. At 17-8, they were also Skyland Conference Delaware Division co-champions with Ridge, and they’ll bring back a good amount of pitching. While they lose Rob Sikorski to graduation, their top two pitchers in terms of innings thrown – Jackson Trego and Ryan Auten, both seniors – return.
Ridge checks in at No. 3. Going 20-7 a year ago, the Red Devils lose ace Aidan Stieglitz but have a good chunk of returnees that should keep the Red Devils right in the thick of things, a year after sharing the Skyland Conference Delaware Division title with Immaculata, and reaching both the Somerset County Tournament and NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 finals.
The only Central Jersey Sports Radio-area team to win a state title last year, Middlesex begins the year at No. 4. The Blue Jays (23-5) were a GMC Tournament final four squad, and beat Midland Park to win the NJSIAA Group 1 title, their first since 2021. They bring back all but ten of their 193 innings pitched last year, led by senior Chris Kozak and junior Dominic Long.
Checking in at No. 5 is Edison, which is overflowing with quality pitching. The GMC Tournament runner-up Eagles (17-11) have four Division 1 commits. Pitchers Robert Roma and Dom Innocenti are set with Wagner, while Connor Muprhy is going to Monmouth.
No. 6 is Colonia, which went 23-5 a season ago, falling to South Plainfield in the North 2, Group 3 sectional title game. While Seton Hall-bound Colin Kroner returns to the mound, starter Cory Pascarella is gone to graduation and now playing at Monmouth, as is Matt Fasulo (.289, 19 RBI) at Rutgers-Newark.
At No. 7 is South Plainfield, which took some big graduation losses, including the middle of the infield (Dan Kapsch at short, Nick Irizarry at second). And of four pitchers for the North 2 Group 3 champion Tigers (18-11) who threw at least 15 innings last year and pitchers Kevin Penny, Aiden McCarthy and Mike Castagna are gone, more than three quarters’ of last season’s innings pitched.
Checking in at eight is Hillsborough. The defending Central Jrsey Group 4 champs were 14-11 last season, but lose a ton, including pitchers James Drinkwater, Brayden Fox (also an outfielder) and Krish Patel, as well as hitters like Andrew Advani and catcher Alex Reiling, among others.
In ninth is Old Bridge. The Knights were 18-11 last year as well, and made the Central Jersey Group 4 finals, falling to Hillsborough. They lose two aces in Justin Hascup and John Smith, with Brady Meyer the most experienced pitcher coming back. The lineup may have fewer question marks, but head coach Matt Donaghue always has a deep roster, it’s just a matter of experience.
And checking in at ten, it’s Woodbridge. the Barrons were 18-8 last year and GMC Red Division champs. They’ll take a hit losing pitcher Ryan Leach to graduation, but Kevin Arroyo returns after throwing 63 1/2 innings a year ago, with a 1.11 ERA and 62 strikeouts.
Below is the complete Bellamy & Son Paving 2026 Baseball Preseason Top Ten:
With a dozen regular season games, plus coverage of the GMC and Somerset County Tournaments – as well as state tournament coverage to be announced at a later date – Central Jersey Sports Radio has announced its 2026 high school baseball broadcast schedule.
It all gets started next week, with our opener on Tuesday, March 31 at 4 pm between defending 2025 SCT champion Immaculata and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 4 winner Hillsborough. Then, after the calendar turns to April mid-week, we get state Group 1 champion Middlesex visiting Spotswood, on Thursday, April 2.
Coverage also includes two regular season games at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater – Montgomery vs Pingry on April 11, and Rutgers Prep against South Plainfield two Saturdays later – as well as the semifinals and finals of the Somerset County Tournament on April 18th and 20th, respectively.
The schedule includes three of last year’s SCT semifinalists, and all four of 2025’s GMC Tournament semifinalists, including a rematch of the title game between Edison and St. Joseph-Metuchen, and a rematch on the Invitational final between New Brunswick and East Brunswick Magnet.
Last year’s North 2, Group 3 winner South Plainfield also is on the schedule, as well as finalist Colonia.
A year ago, St. Joseph boys’ basketball was a mess. Karl Towns, Sr. – the father of Falcon great Karl-Anthony Towns, who brought the Metuchen school a Tournament of Champions title in 2014 – was on his way out after a disastrous 6-16 season, where he barely coached the team, and seemed to spend more time watching his famous son play at Madison Square Garden after being traded from Minnesota to the Knicks.
Oh, how things changed quickly.
St. Joseph went with a known commodity: Mark Taylor, a 1983 graduate who later coached Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum and won two GMC titles in his first go-round, then later coached at Ridge and St. Benedict’s Prep.
He brought in key transfers, including Aidan Carter from nearby St. Thomas Aquinas, Andrew Kretkowski from Rutgers Prep, and Joel Patrick from Union, among others. The last two played right away, but Carter had to sit 30 days due to NJSIAA transfer rules.
A beautifully-voiced singer once told us it’s “never as good as the first time,” but this one proved the exception to the rule.
The Falcons won their first 16 games before taking a loss, a 55-54 defeat on the road at South Plainfield. It prompted a nearly 45-minute postgame meeting in the visiting lockerroom, but Taylor later called it the best thing that could have happened to his team.
It must have been, because they won their next 13 games, too – blitzing through the GMC Tournament to win the championship, making it all the way to Jackson for the Non-Public South A finals, where they eventually lost to St. Peter’s Prep, a juggernaut that beat five different Central Jersey Sports Radio-area squads this year.
And while they may not have finished the year No. 1 – that went to Gill St. Bernard’s, which won its division, county tournament, state sectional and first-ever state championship – the Falcons’ turnaround and league title earns Team of the Year honors from Central Jersey Sports Radio.
By the way, the Falcons aren’t done yet. Who knows what Taylor has up his sleeve for next year, with Alijah Muprhy the biggest senior graduation, as the core of Kretkowksi, Carter and Patrick will return.
Click below to hear from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Boys’ Basketball Team of the Year, including juniors Aidan Carter and Andrew Kretkowski, along with head coach Mark Taylor:
When high school basketball teams open their preseason, hitting the gym in earnest for the first time, they can set all kinds of different goals. For most with high-end aspirations, there are four main ones: win the division, win the county, win a sectional, win a state championship.
In 2025-26, it was check, check, check, and check one more time for Gill St. Bernard’s. And that’s why they finish as the No. 1 team in the final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball rankings of the year.
With a mark of 28-2, the Knights won the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, and while they played though the division only once due to the new alignment, they decided to play Rutgers Prep twice anyway, the last meeting coming after the SCT seeding meeting, and took both matchups. They then beat the Argonauts in the Somerset County Tournament final, went on to avenge a defeat at the hands of Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public Group B title game, then put on a defensive masterclass in the Non-Public B state final at Rutgers, beating Holy Cross Prep of Delran to win the program’s first state title in school history
The Knights are followed by a very close second in St. Joseph-Metuchen. In their first season under alum Mark Taylor – in his second go-round coaching the Falcons – they went 29-2, their lone loss coming to South Plainfield by one on the road before falling in the Non-Public South A final to St. Peter’s Prep – which, by the way, beat every Central Jersey Sports Radio-area team it played this year: Colonia, Gill St. Bernard’s, Rutgers Prep, St. Thomas Aquinas (twice) and St. Joe’s.
Montgomery finishes in third. At 26-5, the two-time defending champion Cougars won a third straight Central Jersey Group 4 title, but this time had to go on the road to do it after being the top seed each of the last two seasons. Not only did they win at top-seed Hillsborough in the final, but the Cougars dominated Cherry Hill East in the Group 4 semifinals, and made it all the way to Rutgers for the state Group 4 final, where they lost back on Saturday to Plainfield for a second straight season, in a tight game most of the way.
Close behind in fourth is Colonia, which finished 21-11 after a 2-6 start, and having lost several key starters, including Aiden Derkack (transfer to Spire Academy in Ohio) and R.J. Wortman (early football enrolee at Rutgers) among others. The Patriots bowed out to Piscataway in a tight GMC Tournament semifinal game, but wound up getting the top-seed in North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3, and won the sectional title for a fifth straight year, and sixth time in the last seven playoff seasons, all under head coach Jose Rodriguez. They made their first state final ever, too, but fell to Ocean City Sunday in the Group 3 finals at Rutgers, giving the Red Raiders their first state title in over 60 years.
Checking in at five is Piscataway (23-8). The Chiefs – despite a lack of height – were tough again in the GMC Red American Division this year, and took St. Joe’s to overtime in early January. They made it all the way to the county final, where they fell to the Falcons in the title game, and bowed out of a brutal North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 playoff section in the semifinals to eventual state Group 4 champion Plainfield.
At six, it’s Rutgers Prep (18-10). The Argonauts still had Will Brunson, but had to deal with the loss of Andrew Kretkowski, who transferred to St. Joseph-Metuchen. But they still showed out this season, reaching the Somerset County Tournament final, where it was another battle with Gill St. Bernard’s, who won the championship.
Hillsborough (22-8) checks in at No. 7, after putting together their first 20-win season under head coach Tim Palek, who just wrapped up his fifth season on the bench. The Raiders had fans enthralled through their playoff run, with an exciting win over Jackson Twp. in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, and they took Montgomery to overtime in the championship before taking the loss.
At No. 8, it’s Immaculata (21-7), the Skyland Conference Raritan Division champs. Season highlights included a home win over in-town rival Somerville, and handing Bridgewater-Raritan its first loss on the road after an 8-0 start by the Panthers.
The last three teams were unranked in the final poll before the postseason.
East Brunswick comes in at nine – going 21-7 this season, and winning the GMC Red National Division with an 8-0 mark – while two others share the tenth and final spot.
We put Perth Amboy (22-6) in at the ten spot along with Manville (19-9), honoring two teams for their full body of work, teams that might not otherwise get recognized in a crowded field of 48 teams between Middlesex and Somerset Counties. The Panthers won their first division title since 1993, claiming the GMC’s White American with an unblemished 12-0 record. The Mustangs, meanwhile, were Skyland Conference Mountain Division champions at 8-0, and beat rival Bound Brook twice this season, with the first of their two victories being their first against the Crusaders in 20 years.
Dropping out were Pingry (13-10) and South Plainfield (18-11).
Below is the complete final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten for 2025-26:
When two of the top non-public teams in the state face off, fans anticipate an exhilarating game, and that is exactly what transpired. St. Peter’s Prep defeated St. Joseph-Metuchen 59-46 despite early offensive struggles.
With a first-quarter score more fit for a baseball game, 7-5 in favor of the Falcons (29-2), it seemed as though offense would be at a premium in this one. Aiden Carter, five points, and Andrew Kretkowski, two points, were the only two St Joe’s players to record points in the first quarter, while Oscar Martinez knocked down a triple, along with a bucket from Caden Post, accounted for all of the Marauders’ scoring in the first eight minutes.
As the second quarter progressed, both teams struggled to get the scoring started, as the Falcons could not find production from players other than Kretkowski and Carter, who combined for the 10 points in the quarter. Carter finished the first half with an impressive 11 of his team’s 17 points.
Conversely, St. Peter’s Prep saw five different players tally a basket, with Richie Rosa leading the way with four points in the second stanza. St. Joe’s has a chance to take the lead with the last possession of the half, but missed three straight open threes as the final seconds ticked away. With two vastly different quarters, things were all knotted up at 17 when the horn sounded at the end of the first half.
Coming out of the break, both teams continued to trade shots back and forth, yet defense was still the leading factor. At points, the Marauders looked to be pulling away, but defensive stops turned into offensive chances, allowing the Falcons to keep the game within one possession for most of the quarter. The defensive effort for St. Joes was punctuated by 6-foot-10 center Joel Patrick, who pinned a layup attempt against the glass to keep it a one-score game entering the fourth as St. Peter’s led 33-31 with eight minutes left to decide a champion.
Up to this point, it had been anybody’s game, with either side coming through in big moments. But ultimately, it was one aspect of the game where the Marauders outshone the Falcons, and that was shooting from long range.
St Peter’s knocked down six triples in the second half, compared to just two by St. Joes which ended up being the difference on the scoreboard. While the scoreboard told one story after the made baskets, the Falcons’ players and fans told a different story. With each three that fell it seemed as though the energy of St. Joe’s did as well. Mason Santiago and Martinez led the three-point barrage in the second half, pouring in all six made by the Marauders.
When the clock struck triple zero, it was St Peter’s who emerged with a 13-point victory and a trip to the Non-Public A championship.
For the Falcons, the end goal was not achieved, but there is a lot of success to build on from head coach Mark Taylor’s first season at the helm. Without a senior in its starting rotation, St Joe’s could very well run back the same rotation next season.
“We’re gonna be back.. and we are going to come back with a vengeance next year”
Despite not achieving the goal he and his team set out for at the beginning of the season, Taylor had one message for his squad.
Click below for post game reaction from St. Joseph head coach Mark Taylor with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart: