Tim Sweeney – Central Jersey Sports Radio

It may not be the way Raiders’ head coach Mark Blevins drew it up, but it’s what you play a whole season for: to have a chance to control where you end up in the postseason.

Maybe he didn’t want it to come down to his team’s final division game before the GMC Tournament seeding, but it is what it is, and 5th-ranked North Brunswick can control whether they get the tournament’s top seed or not: they just have to beat South Brunswick Thursday in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

First pitch is 4 pm with pregame at 3:40 with Mike Pavlichko calling all the action; click here to listen.

The Raiders are 9-5 overall, 7-4 in the division, tied for first in place in the GMC Red Division with Monroe, but own the tiebreaker over the Falcons by virtue of having swept their two-game series. So, a North Brunswick win Thursday sets them up as the likely top seed.

A loss, and things could get hairy.

Click here for a more detailed look at the GMC Red Division race, which should determine the top seed in the GMC Tournament.

Be that as it may, defending GMC Tournament champ North Brunswick has been playing well, getting great pitching and hitting from the entire team, but especially from Rutgers-bound Zach Konstantinovsky, who won a must-win game Tuesday at home over South Brunswick. He went the complete game, five innings, striking out 11 and shutting out the Vikings, while knocked in three runs at the plate, including a home run.

So, he won’t go again until next week. That’s the good news for South Brunswick (5-10, 3-8 GMC White), which graduated eleven seniors last season, and has been working with younger players – i.e., an all-junior outfield, and just one senior in the infield – to improve their game. Not an easy thing to do when Red Division opponents come at you fast and furious in a tight four weeks leading up to the GMC seeding meeting.

Click below to hear from both coaches ahead of Thursday’s CJSR broadcast featuring North Brunswick at South Brunswick:

North Brunswick head coach Mark Blevins

South Brunswick head coach Tim Sweeney

Two games, four solid starting pitchers.

That’s the story heading into Tuesday afternoon’s GMC Red Division doubleheader as Edison (5-7) travels to South Brunswick’s Rowland Park to play two against the Vikings (5-8).

Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast both games, with the pregame show at 3:15, and first pitch of game one slated for 3:30. The second game will follow about 20 minutes later. Mike Pavlichko will call all the play-by-play; click here to listen.

Each team has had its share of successes, and each had its share of struggles in 2022, and often for the same reason. Both have some veteran players and good pitching, but sometimes the hits and runs just don’t come.

It’s one reason both teams have lost three of their last four games.

But the matchup also is a chance for both to right the ship. The GMC Red can be unforgiving – especially for an Edison team playing its first year in the division, moving up from the White – but it’s an opportunity for each team against a similar team. A split may be status quo, but a sweep could turn the tide for whoever can grab both.