The start of a new high school baseball season is days away and, as always, we’ve got all the bases covered with in-depth previews of the Greater Middlesex Conference, plus a look around the horn at other leagues from across the state.
Our GMC lineup includes team-by-team previews, preseason All-Conference and All-Division selections by position, preseason Top 10 team rankings, a complete opening week schedule and more.
Check out our Hot Stove Report below
A preview of the GMC White Division, which will be posted on Sunday night or Monday morning, leads off our preseason coverage, which will continue through March 31.
Please consider bookmarking this page, as it will serve as your home base for our extensive 2019 baseball previews, which will be linked here as they appear online next week.
Follow Greg Tufaro on Twitter all season long, where he’ll provide links to every baseball story he writes, as well as live updates from all of the games he covers plus all weather-related schedule changes.
MyCentralJersey.com News Director Joe Martino has a special offer for GMC baseball fans, who can receive unlimited digital access to our website for just 99 cents per month for the first three months, a savings of more than 90 percent that takes readers through the high school season.
Until our season previews are unveiled, take a look back at last season in our 2018 Year in Review and read some of the items below in our Hot Stove report.
HOT STOVE REPORT
Following is a look at some offseason happenings regarding college signings, personnel moves, conference realignment, the league’s new tournament format, preseason accolades and more.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
During the offseason, eight GMC players signed National Letters of Intent with Division I or Division II schools.
They include Sayreville’s Christian Aich (Pace), Edison's Christian Biolsi (Southern New Hampshire), South Brunswick’s Jacob Ciccone (Lafayette), Old Bridge’s Sonny Fauci (St. John’s), Monroe’s Matthew Fopeano (Caldwell University), Christian Petrillo (Southern New Hampshire University), South Plainfield’s Chris Shine (Seton Hall) and North Brunswick’s Andrew Tan (Binghamton).
If we've missed anyone, drop Greg Tufaro a line at gtufaro@gannett.com
Expansion
The GMC has expanded from 30 to 31 teams with the addition of Calvary Christian.
The Old Bridge-based school is the league’s newest member and will play in the GMC's newly formed Silver Division.
Coaching Carousel
Seven mentors are making their varsity head coaching debuts with new schools this season.
They are Tim Ballard (J.F. Kennedy), RJ Davis (New Brunswick), Sean Field (Monroe), Nick McKee (Piscataway), Dan Morvay (Carteret), Chris Osborn (Dunellen), Steve Zurawiecki (Piscataway Tech).
Former Dunellen coach Jim Darby takes over at his alma mater, North Plainfield.
Ballard, a disciple of Sayreville head coach Mike Novak, succeeds Warren Rotella at J.F. Kennedy, where Rotella will be taking over as the school’s athletics director on April 1.
Osborn and Davis are well known around the gridiron as assistant football coaches, the former at Dunellen and the latter most recently at South River.
McKee, who previously coached at Piscataway Tech, moves across the township to Piscataway, where he succeeds Scott Gleichenhaus, who is now an assistant at South Plainfield.
Happy Birthday Rookie
Congratulations to Coach “Glick” and his wife Veliana on the birth of their son Oliver, who was born March 18.
Warm Knights
Old Bridge took a road trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the Knights will play their last game today before heading home.
Let’s hope they bring back some of that warm weather.
Preseason Honors
Eleven GMC players were named Rawlings Perfect Game Preseason Northeast All-Region including Old Bridge ace Sonny Fauci, who was a first-team selection.
Jacob Ciccone (South Brunswick), Jack Fitzgerald (Monroe), Matt Fopeano (Monroe), Rob Gonzalez (South Plainfield), Elliot Hayward (Old Bridge), Jarrett May (Middlesex), Michael Reyes (South Brunswick), Chris Shine (South Plainfield), Casey Takemura (J.P. Stevens) and Andrew Tan (North Brunswick) were named honorable mention.
Colts Stampeding
Loaded with former GMC players, Middlesex County College is ranked No. 16 in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association poll.
Deepest Sympathy
The GMC baseball community offers its deepest sympathy to the family of legendary Rutgers University coach Fred Hill, who died earlier this month, and to Mike Garlatti, founder of the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge, whose mother, Angelica, recently passed away.
New Commissioner
Mike Pede of East Brunswick Tech succeeds Greg Beyer of Monroe as the conference’s new baseball committee chairman.
Division Alignments
The GMC has been reconfigured from four to five divisions. Below is a look at the division alignments for this season and next.
Red: South Brunswick, Old Bridge, East Brunswick, J.P. Stevens, Perth Amboy, Piscataway and Monroe.
White: Edison, North Brunswick, Sayreville, Woodbridge, Colonia, St. Joseph and South Plainfield.
Blue: New Brunswick, J.F. Kennedy, Carteret, Spotswood, Metuchen and Middlesex.
Gold: South River, Bishop Ahr, Highland Park, Dunellen and South Amboy.
Silver: Wardlaw-Hartridge, Timothy Christian, Calvary Christian, East Brunswick Tech, Piscataway Tech and Perth Amboy Tech.
Tournament Changes
The league will employ a new tournament format this season.
Unlike previous years, when the tournament was open to all 31 league members, the GMC Championship Tournament will feature 16 teams as selected by the conference’s tournament seeding committee.
Under the new format, division champions are not guaranteed a seed.
All unseeded schools will be eligible to compete in the GMC Invitational Tournament, which will declare its own champion.
Rutgers University will host the GMC Championship Tournament semifinals, and East Brunswick Tech will host the GMC Championship Tournament final.
The GMC Invitational Tournament final will be contested at the site of the highest remaining seed.
Alumni Day
Former head and assistant coaches Lou Urbano, Paul Esposito, Vinny Esposito, Steve Bucchignano, Kevin Blake, Jayson Calhoun and Mike Butler are among those who have already committed to participate in Saint Joseph's 2019 Old Timer's Day and Alumni Baseball Game, which will be held May 18.
Doug Alongi, a 1989 graduate of the school and recent inductee to the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame, is also scheduled to attend.
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