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| cjsportsradio.com |
May 6, 2023
Or, maybe not.
North Brunswick, fresh off it’s first-ever Red Division title, survived the gauntlet in its first year in the top division, finishing a game ahead of three teams bunched behind them: Old Bridge, St. Joseph-Metuchen and Monroe. They all followed behind the Raiders with the two-, three- and four-seeds.
The White Division placed two teams in the top eight, with Sayreville fifth and Woodbridge sixth. South Plainfield and East Brunswick rounded it out at seven and eight.
So who could win this thing? Here’s our take, plus other notes, analysis and history.
The Favorite…
North Brunswick may have been close with the three teams behind it, but they’re the favorite for a reason. Keep in mind they did have four division losses this year: to East Brunswick and South Plainfield once each, and twice to Old Bridge.
But the way the tournament calendar goes, this is North Brunswick’s tournament to lose. That’s because the Raiders will throw Zack Konstantinovsky in Monday’s second round against either 16-seed South River or 17-seed Colonia. And the plan would be to bring him back Saturday in the semis, then a week later in the finals.
So Zack will get to start three of the four games in the tournament. That matters because he has not lost a game since 2021. In fact, in his last 16 appearances, North Brunswick has only lost twice, and one of those was a one-inning perfect appearance in relief in an ten-inning loss to Old Bridge. He didn’t factor into either decision.
That means Alejandro Jabar and Kyle Anderson have to get through Wednesday, and whatever bullpen they may need. And that ‘pen should be fresh, because in five starts this year, Konstantinovsky has gone the distance in four games, three of them seven innings wins, and one a five. In the other, a 2-0 win over South Plainfield, he went 6 and 1/3.
Of course, you still have to play the games, but no one has shown they can hit Zack K, who hasn’t given up more than three hits in any start this year, or since. The last time he allowed more than five hits was almost a year ago, in a 2-0 win over Spotswood.
The Contenders…
Any of the next three seeds in this tournament have a good shot to win this thing, if things break right. That includes Old Bridge, Monroe or St. Joe’s.
Let’s start with the Knights, and the fact that despite finishing second in the Red Division, they are the only one among the top four teams in the Red to have beaten all of the other three at least once; they split with Monroe and St. Joseph, and swept North Brunswick. (Zack Konstantinovsky pitched in one of those games, then ten-inning loss, but didn’t get a decision.) The Raiders’ four wins among the group all came against the two other Falcons. Old Bridge isn’t a particularly heavy-hitting team, batting just .280 as a group – though Kyle McSorley is tearing it up at .388 with 23 RBIs and five home runs – but they sport an ERA of just 2.20 heading into the weekend.
St. Joe’s can hit up and down the lineup, with guys like Robbie Carvelli, Christian Azcona, Josiah Brown and Mark Gialluisi, the latter of which is hitting an eye-popping .581, and has 18 stolen bases. They beat up on the rest of the division, only getting a win against Monroe and a win against Old Bridge against the other three teams in the top four. Pitching, though, again is the key, even if it took a while to figure it out. The Falcons’ staff has two shutouts in its last seven games, a 6-1 stretch in which they haven’t allowed more than three runs in a game, that in a 3-0 loss at South Plainfield, the only time they’ve been whitewashed this season.
And Monroe is a late bloomer, too. The Falcons who wear purple started the season 1-4, including a loss to St. Joe’s and a sweep at the hands of North Brunswick. But they then reeled off seven straight wins before a 7-2 loss at Old Bridge on Thursday, which cost them the second seed in the GMC Tournament. Harrison Lollin has been dominant this season – 1.63 ERA in 34 1/3 innings pitched, with 51 strikeouts, eight walks and just eight runs allowed all year – and will get the ball as many times as his coach Sean Field can give it to him.
The Dark Horses…
This is where you look at teams that have the intangibles, and can pull off some surprises. On paper, they may not have the arms or bats of some of the favorites, but they have a little something extra.
Let’s start with Sayreville. The Bombers are having their best season in years, and are in the Championship edition of the GMC Tournament for the first time since 2019, pre-COVID. The White Division champions have won six of their last seven heading into the weekend, led by a lineup hitting .304 thanks in large part to Jake Romanello ripping it up with a .511 batting average and 12 RBIs. And a largely untested pitching staff has looked good, too, with Aayush Mehta and Thomas Schlaline looking impressive. But if things go to chalk, and 5th-seed Sayreville beats 12th-seed South Brunswick in Monday’s first round, they’ll get a quarterfinal rematch with Monroe – their only “play up” this season – a team they lost to 11-1 this past Wednesday. And they didn’t even face Lollin in that game.
Woodbridge can flat-out hit, and when you have a steady pitcher like junior Eddy Nunez, you’ve got a shot. The 12-4 Barrons haven’t lost two-in a row since the first week of the season. The team is hitting .337 and is scoring an average of 8.3 runs per game, but more importantly, they are tough, gritty and fearless at the plate. That’s good margin for a team with an ERA of a shade over three. And they are experienced, too, with many returning players from last year’s North 2, Group 4 runner-up ballclub.
But they’ve got a tough first round opponent in Spotswood, also a team you just can never count out, gutty underdogs in the mold of their head coach Glenny Fredricks. Yes, we’re going with two opening game opponents as dark horses here. The Chargers won their first nine games of the season before falling to out-of-conference foes Livingston and Audubon in the same weekend. They won three more before falling twice this week, to JFK and St. Thomas Aquinas, but this team can hack it. Chalk would have the winner facing third-seed St. Joe’s in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
I’d also look at Edison as a sleeper pick. Their hitting is much improved, and they have good pitching. The Eagles got the 9-seed and will open in the second round at 8-seed East Brunswick, which they lost to 4-2 just a few short hours after Friday’s seeding meeting. Now, they get to square off again, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t have Jaxon Appelman on the mound Monday. The winner would likely face top-seed North Brunswick in the quarterfinals Wednesday on the Raiders’ “home-away-from-home” home field at Community Park.
Quick Turnarounds…
With the Championship Tournament expanded this season to 20 games as part of a pilot program by the GMC, four teams that normally would have started play on Monday in the first round, now start on Saturday. That’s a little more than a 24-hour turnaround, not to mention the fact that Saturday is an SAT day.
Here’s the schedule of first round games on Saturday, May 6th:
#17 Colonia at #16 South River, 11 am
#19 Metuchen at #14 JFK, 11 am
#20 Piscataway at #13 St. Thomas Aquinas, 2 pm
#18 JP Stevens at #15 Carteret, 11 am
Tournament History…
Not surprisingly, each of the top four seeds have won the GMC Tournament at least once in the past decade.
Number One seed North Brunswick won its first-ever title last year, doing so as a six-seed, beating top-seed St. Joseph-Metuchen 4-2 behind a gem from Zack Konstantinovsky. Second-seed Old Bridge last won it in 2019, and its only other title was in 2011, although Madison Central and Cedar Ridge – which merged to form Old Bridge in 1994 – each won once, in 1989 and 1987, respectively. Third-seed St. Joe’s won it all in 2021, blanking South Brunswick 2-0 behind an outstanding pitching performance from Andrew Goldan. In the past decade, they’ve won three times, including 2017 and 2014. And Monroe last won in 2015, when they were the 2-seed and beat 8-seed Sayreville 1-0 in eight innings.
Here’s a history of the GMC Tournament finals:
- 1986: East Brunswick 14, Madison Central 3
- 1987: Cedar Ridge 2, Colonia 1
- 1988: Carteret 4, JP Stevens 2 (11 innings)
- 1989: Madison Central 8, Cedar Ridge 7 (8 innings)
- 1990: Edison 9, South Plainfield 3
- 1991: East Brunswick 6, South Plainfield 5
- 1992: Edison 1, Bishop Ahr 0
- 1993: Edison 12, JFK 3
- 1994: Edison 10, Monroe 3
- 1995: Edison 5, Piscataway 3
- 1996: Bishop Ahr 4, Edison 3 (13 innings)
- 1997: East Brunswick 3, JFK 2
- 1998: Edison 2, East Brunswick 1
- 1999: Edison 7, Bishop Ahr 2
- 2000: Woodbridge 7, JFK 1
- 2001: Edison 4, Spotswood 1
- 2002: South Brunswick 4, Piscataway 2 (9 innings)
- 2003: Piscataway 9, East Brunswick 5
- 2004: St. Joseph 6, Carteret 0
- 2005: East Brunswick 8, St. Joseph 1
- 2006: St. Joseph 11, South Amboy 0
- 2007: Spotswood 7, JP Stevens 6
- 2008: St. Joseph 3, Old Bridge 2
- 2009: St. Joseph 6, North Brunswick 0
- 2010: South Brunswick 9, North Brunswick 2
- 2011: (2) Old Bridge 3, (4) South Plainfield 2
- 2012: (3) Middlesex 10, (1) Sayreville 4
- 2013: (7) JFK 4, (9) Monroe 2
- 2014: (4) St. Joseph 1, (6) South Plainfield 0 (walk-off bases loaded walk)
- 2015: (2) Monroe 1, (8) Sayreville 0 (8 innings)
- 2016: (2) East Brunswick 1, (9) JP Stevens 0
- 2017: (1) St. Joseph 1, (6) Monroe 0
- 2018: (14)South Plainfield 2, (12) Perth Amboy 1 (12 innings)
- 2019: (1) Old Bridge 2, (3) South Brunswick 1
- 2021: (2) St. Joseph 2, (5) South Brunswick 0
- 2022: (6) North Brunswick 4, (1) St. Joseph 2
Did You Know?
East Brunswick is the only team to have won a title in every decade since the formation of the GMC, not counting the current decade, which is only a couple of years in. Edison may have won the most titles with eight, followed by St. Joe’s with seven, but East Brunswick has five. The first came in 1986 over Madison Central. They won again in 1991 and 1997, then in the 2000s brought home a title in 2005. And they also won the GMCT in 2016.
Only five teams have won multiple titles. Besides Edison, Joe’s and East Brunswick as mentioned above, South Brunswick and Old Bridge each have won two titles. Eleven other schools have won one each, including Cedar Ridge, Madison Central, Carteret, Bishop Ahr (none as St. Thomas Aquinas), Woodbridge, Piscataway, Spotswood, Middlesex, JFK, Monroe, and South Plainfield – a good mix of large and smaller schools.
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