Baseball Notes: Rejuvenated Jackson Reaches Semis; Manalapan Milestone; Redmond’s Final Act

At no point since the start of the 2026 high school season has the Jackson Township baseball team had a winning percentage of .500 and unless the Jaguars reach the NJSIAA Group IV championship game with three more wins, they will not reach that .500 mark.

Here is the thing, though: the Jaguars just might win those three games. After taking on a schedule that beat down the team throughout most of the season, Jackson is reaping the benefits of facing great competition now that the games are more important than at any other point in the season.

After blanking No. 10 seed Hillsborough, 4-0, Thursday in the opening round and slamming 15th-seeded Franklin on Friday, the Jaguars storm into the Central Jersey Group IV championship Wednesday on a six-game winning streak that includes regular-season wins over Toms River South, Rumson-Fair Haven and Shore Regional leading up to the start of the NJSIAA Tournament. That section of the schedule is just a dose of what coach Pat George subjected his team to with the schedule he concocted.

“It was a rough patch we went through,” senior leftfielder S.J. Wall said. “Just to be with the boys and get through it together, it is such a good feeling for all of us.”

The list of Jackson’s opponents this season is a who’s who of state powerhouse teams and state championship contenders: South Jersey Group IV No. 1 seed Kingsway; South Non-Public B No. 1 Gloucester Catholic; Shore Conference Class A North champion Red Bank Catholic; defending Group IV champion Cherokee; two-time defending Group II champion Governor Livingston; Central Jersey Group III No. 4 seed Lawrence; and Monmouth County Tournament champion Ranney. On top of all those opponents, Jackson played in a stacked Class A South division, in which they finished fifth in the standings behind four teams that are also still alive in the NJSIAA Tournament: division champion Point Pleasant Beach, Wall, Toms River East and Brick Memorial.

“I think the season schedule we played was one of the hardest that anyone has ever seen,” said George, who won his 100th game Friday vs. Franklin. “That prepares you for the state tournament. When you’re seeing top arms from A South and even teams outside the division and the conference, it prepares you for an event like this. It was only a matter of time before we started showing what we could do. It was frustrating. We made some stupid mistakes to lose some games, some bad coaching decisions in certain situations, but then it starts to click and we’re playing the best ball we have played as of late.”

“Basically every team we’re playing is ranked in the Shore or ranked in the state,” Wall said. “We knew it was a gauntlet, but we were ready for it. It’s definitely made us stronger.”

While the schedule was designed to make Jackson battle-tested, it was also on the verge of breaking the Jaguars. They were 6-15 through 21 games and failed to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament. Qualifying for the NJSIAA Tournament was never in real jeopardy but it took wins over Toms River South and Rumson to bump Jackson into the favorable No. 7 seed that it ended up drawing.

“The beginning of the season was an all-time low,” senior shortstop and pitcher Matt Galayda said. “Right after our Autism Awareness game (a win over Livingston), we started picking it up and gaining confidence. We still had some tough losses, but we just kept working and kept getting better.”

A change in home venue has also made the Jackson players feel more at home. Early in the season, the Jaguars played its home games at the former Jackson Memorial field, but starting with a game vs. Lawrence on May 7, the Jaguars have played their home games on the campus of Jackson Township, formerly Jackson Liberty High School. It was an adjustment for George – the coach of Jackson Memorial from 2021 to 2025 – but for a core group of his starting lineup, it was a move back to the field they had played on for years.

Wall, Galayda, catcher Carney O’Donnell and rightfielder Mason Ciccariello are all seniors who were multiple-year starters at Jackson Liberty prior to the merger that joined Jackson Memorial and Jackson Liberty starting in the fall of 2025.

“This field is top-notch now,” George said. “Before, it needed some tender love and care.”

Like every sports team at Jackson, combining varsity teams from two different high schools came with its challenges and the challenges were more intense for George than most coaches because Jackson Liberty’s baseball team was one of its more successful programs. Once players found and accepted their roles, however, the ceiling was still a sectional championship, despite Jackson Memorial graduating most of its 2025 starting group.

“Obviously, we’re more comfortable on this field, meaning the guys were at Liberty,” Wall said. “I think it’s been easier for everybody though. We have more time because we’re not traveling over to another field to play games. It’s just easier to focus on baseball.”

“With the guys playing from both Memorial and Liberty as one cohesive group, one team, now you can see what we can really do as a town,” George said. “Everything during this year has been crazy. Every aspect of life at the school has been a challenge this year, but it’s starting to feel normal out on the field and that’s what we needed. The kids deserve a lot of credit. We had our growing pains, but from day one, they came in here ready to compete.”

During its recent surge, Jackson’s pitching has finally clicked. Senior left-hander Matt Colaneri was an all-division performer a year ago and after an uneven start to his third year as a member of a varsity rotation, Colaneri has been in top form during his last three outings. He pitched a complete game in a 4-2 win over Toms River South, then came back on three days of rest to pitch two scoreless innings in a win over Manchester. In the opening round of the Central Group IV Playoffs, Colaneri turned in his best outing of the season, firing a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and four walks against Hillsborough, the defending Central Group IV champion.

On Friday vs. a Franklin team that upset No. 2 Edison on Wednesday, Galayda worked around 10 hits allowed – all singles – to allow one run in five innings. The senior right-hander negated the double-digit hits by issuing zero walks and whiffing seven batters and his defense aided him with an error-free game in the field.

At the plate, Wall, Galayda and O’Donnell have starred for the Jaguars through two rounds of the tournament, with plenty of contributions throughout the lineup. Wall homered in each of the first two rounds, including a two-run shot Friday that capped Jackson’s eight-run second inning and made the score, 9-0.

“I’m feeling good right now,” Wall said. “They are throwing it over the plate and I’m hitting it over the fence. I’ve got to give credit to all the other guys doing their job. Without them, none of it is possible.”

“We had some guys struggling early in the year and S.J. was one of them,” George said. “Being in there for the majority of the season, he has seen the good pitching and now, he’s seeing the pitcher where he can do some damage. I think he has just turned it up a notch, plus he is playing great defensively.”

Galayda swatted a two-run home run against Hillsborough on Thursday and helped his cause Friday with a pair of walks and runs scored. O’Donnell, meanwhile, is 3-for-5 through two rounds of the tournament after going 2-for-2 with a double and four RBI in Friday’s win over Hillsborough.

O’Donnell started the season playing third base but has moved back behind the plate to catch, switching with sophomore Dominic Zolla. Now playing third base, Zolla has also been a tournament bright spot for Jackson, going 2-for-5 with a pair of walks, three runs scored and an RBI on Friday while hitting leadoff. He and fellow sophomore Mike Fogarty are currently occupying the top two spots in the Jackson order, with Fogarty going 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs and an RBI on Friday.

Junior centerfielder Charlie Buchinsky was 1-for-2 with an RBI double and Ciccariello went 1-for-3 with an RBI double on Friday as well.

Jackson will try to continue its state-tournament roll at No. 3 Hunterdon Central on Wednesday.

 

Manalapan’s Milestone

During his 20 seasons as head coach at Manalapan, Brian Boyce has led the Braves to some of the biggest wins a team can achieve. The Braves won back-to-back NJSIAA Group IV championships in 2011 and 2012, including a record-breaking 29 runs in the 2011 championship game. More recently, Manalapan won the Central Jersey Group IV championships in 2019 and it took a controversial call to keep the Braves out of the Group IV final that season, during which they also reached the Shore Conference Tournament final.

In the first round of the 2026 NJSIAA Tournament, Boyce hit a personal milestone with his 400th career win, most of which have come at Manalapan. His first job was at North Bergen, which reached the 2001 Group IV final under Boyce.

The win over Marlboro mark the fifth time in the six seasons since Manalapan’s last sectional title that the Braves won their first-round game in the NJSIAA Tournament and a win at Hunterdon Central Friday would have marked the second time in that stretch that Manalapan reached the sectional semifinals. The start was promising, but Hunterdon Central countered two Manalapan runs in the top of the first with three in the bottom of the inning and led, 4-2, by the end of the second.

Manalapan does not have a large senior group this year, but one its third-year starting shortstop made a major impact in the third sectional quarterfinal of his career. Anthony Foti went 3-for-3 with a double and a grand slam that catapulted Manalapan into the lead, 7-4, in the top of the sixth inning.

The game took a sharp, dark turn for Manalapan in the bottom of the sixth, when a hard ground ball struck the face of diving junior second baseman Vin Matteis, who was briefly knocked unconscious, according to Boyce. Matteis regained consciousness and was responsive to the training staff on site, but left in an ambulance – a scene his Braves teammates had to process before resuming play more than 30 minutes after the initial incident.

The game resumed with runners on first and third, one out and Manalapan lead 7-4. Hunterdon Central went on to score eight runs in the inning against a shellshocked Braves team and won, 12-7.

It was a jarring ending to a strong 2026 showing by Manalapan, which enjoyed an offensive resurgence after struggling to score in 2025. Boyce’s team is also set to return six of the nine offensive starters from Friday’s game, with Foto, third baseman Rob DiStefano and catcher Rob Cruz the only seniors in the starting nine. DiStefano also drove in a run in a 1-for-3 game on Friday.

Junior right-hander Jagger Golden, who defeated Marlboro with five innings on Wednesday, is the lone starting pitcher set to return for Manalapan, with Friday starter Noah Feldman, fellow left-hander Brady Costello and Peter Rispolo all graduating. Rispoli and Costello also pitched on Friday.

 

Complete Ace

Freehold Township’s season ended with an 8-0 loss at top-seeded Old Bridge on Friday in the Central Group IV quarterfinals, but the Patriots made it past the first round thanks to one last ace-like outing from its senior leader of the pitching staff.

Wednesday vs. South Brunswick, Jackson Redmond pitched a complete game without issuing a walk for his seventh straight start, giving him 49 innings with 74 strikeouts and zero walks during that stretch. He also went 50 straight innings without allowing an earned run, but that hit a snag in the final inning on Wednesday.

After Redmond pitched six shutout innings with one hit and 10 strikeouts, South Brunswick dinked-and-dunked him for three earned runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game, 3-3.

While Redmond has been the centerpiece of Freehold Township’s success this year, the Patriots would not have had the memorable moments that they had without the rest of the team picking itself up when Redmond could not. That was true again Wednesday, when senior catcher Nick Schicchi delivered another clutch moment for the Patriots with an RBI single with two out in the bottom of the seventh to give Freehold Township a 4-3 win over the Vikings.

Schicchi, Redmond and left-handed pitcher Cameron Chiapuzio are the lone seniors to see significant time for Freehold Township this year and while next year’s team will miss them, they got a taste of big games because of the leadership of the small but impactful senior group.

Redmond, who is headed to Seton Hall University next year, finished his senior season 7-2 with a 0.90 ERA in 62 innings with 90 strikeouts and six walks.