UNION COUNTY, NJ — For the first time, a Union County baseball team won a state championship in Hamilton a year ago, as the Governor Livingston High School Highlanders captured the Group 2 crown for the fourth time in program history.
With players such as junior University Virginia commit Zach Geertsma back at shortstop and senior Stetson University-bound right hander Matty Diskin on the mound once again, Governor Livingston will be in the mix to make an attempt at repeating as a state champion for the first time.
There are four new head coaches in Union County this year, including Ryan Matlosz at Cranford High School, J.R. Luccarelli at Scotch Plains–Fanwood High School, Waldy Arias at Plainfield High School and Craig Goldberg at Linden High School.
Teams right now are completing their final scrimmages ahead of Opening Day, which for 15 Union County schools will be Tuesday, April 1, and, for the other three, Thursday, April 3.
Some of the best records last year included Governor Livingston tying the program record for wins in a season with 28 during a 28-5 campaign that included a 9-4 record in the Union County Conference’s Watchung Division and a 3-2 setback at Delbarton School. Governor Livingston is scheduled to host Delbarton on Palm Sunday, April 13, at 1 p.m., up on the hill in Berkeley Heights.
Scotch Plains–Fanwood was the other team in Union County to win 20 games last year, going 20-9 in head coach Joe Higgins’ final season at the helm. The Raiders won the Watchung Division at 9-3.
Mountain Division schools Union Catholic and Elizabeth high schools both went 16-9, with Union Catholic winning the division at 10-2.
Westfield High School went 19-7 and earned the top seed for the Union County Tournament and fellow Watchung Division school Summit High School went 18-6-1 in posting another winning season.
Also from the Mountain Division, Jonathan Dayton High School went 17-12 and captured another North 2, Group 1 sectional state championship, led by junior Frank Dasti, who blanked David Brearley High School, 4-0, in the title game. Dasti reached 100 hits last year and will continue playing in college at St. Joseph’s University.
David Brearley had another fine year under head coach Dave Kaplow, coming in with a winning record of 17-9.
Roselle Park High School, with head coach Rob Salamanca, went 13-10 overall and won the Valley Division with a perfect league mark of 7-0.
Diskin shut out Pascack Valley High School, 3-0, in the Group 2 final and was also the winning pitcher in the UCT final at Kean University against Westfield, which was a 10-8 Governor Livingston victory. Diskin took a shutout into the bottom of the seventh with Governor Livingston leading 10-0, before Westfield staged a miraculous comeback that saw the Blue Devils score eight runs, have the tying runs on base and the winning run at the plate before Governor Livingston registered the third and final out.
Governor Livingston won the UCT for the fourth time and the first time since 2021. The Highlanders captured UCT and state championships in the same year for the first time.
Matlosz is a 1999 Cranford graduate who played for head coaches James Shriner and Dennis McCaffery at Cranford and was a longtime, respected assistant coach with McCaffery, who is now the head coach at St. Joseph High School, Metuchen. Matlosz was also inducted into the Union County Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Luccarelli was an assistant coach at Scotch Plains–Fanwood for 10 years with Higgins. He was also an assistant coach at Greenfield College and Elizabeth. He played his high school ball at Neptune and collegiately at Kean.
Goldberg was previously the head coach at Roselle Catholic and now takes over at Linden.
Goldberg, who played at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark, was previously a varsity assistant at St. Joseph, Metuchen, and, before that, at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School, Iselin.
Arias was one of the best baseball players ever at Plainfield and was then a standout second baseman and third baseman at Campbell University. A 2018 Plainfield graduate, Arias was a perfect 44 for 44 in stolen base attempts his junior year in 2017 and finished with more than 100 hits, 100 runs and 100 stolen bases.
There are eight games scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, that include Union County schools, with the other three to open two days later on Thursday, April 3.
Following is the full schedule:
Union County Baseball 2025 Opening Day No. 1
Tuesday, April 1, at 4 p.m.
Governor Livingston at Elizabeth
Westfield at David Brearley
Cranford at Oratory Prep
Scotch Plains–Fanwood at Arthur L. Johnson
New Providence at Union
Summit at Jonathan Dayton
Union Catholic at Roselle Park
Hillside at Newark University
Union County Baseball 2025 Opening Day No. 2
Thursday, April 3, at 4 p.m.
Middletown North at Rahway
Linden at Plainfield
Union County baseball head coaches for 2025
Union: Lou Clemente
Roselle Park: Rob Salamanca
David Brearley: Dave Kaplow
Jonathan Dayton: Mike Abbate
Governor Livingston: Chris Roof
Summit: Kevin Zaleski
Elizabeth: Kristian Cortizo
Hillside: Sean Morris
Linden: Craig Goldberg
Rahway: Brad Edwards
Cranford: Ryan Matlosz
Arthur L. Johnson: Dave Kennedy
Westfield: Jay Cook
Plainfield: Waldy Arias
Scotch Plains–Fanwood: J.R. Luccarelli
New Providence: Chris Brodeur
Union Catholic: Anthony Colletti, Jr.
Oratory Prep: Bob Costello
Union County Conference baseball alignment for 2025
Watchung Division
Cranford
Governor Livingston
New Providence
Scotch Plains–Fanwood
Summit
Union Catholic
Westfield
Defending champ: Scotch Plains–Fanwood
Union Catholic moved up after winning the Mountain Division last year.
Mountain Division
David Brearley
Jonathan Dayton
Elizabeth
Arthur L. Johnson
Oratory Prep
Roselle Park
Union
2024 champ: Union Catholic
Roselle Park moved up after winning the Valley Division last year.
Valley Division
Hillside
Linden
Plainfield
Rahway
2024 champ: Roselle Park
Roselle Catholic is not fielding a team this year.
File Photo