Monroe Stuns Old Bridge 7–0 in One-Hit Shutout to Win GMC Title

A week of rain couldn't wash away what Monroe had built. And on Saturday morning in East Brunswick, Ben Faigin made sure nothing else could either.

The Rutgers commit took the mound for the rescheduled GMC Tournament final knowing it was his last game in a Monroe uniform, with the Falcons having been eliminated from playoff contention in the days leading up to it. None of that changed what he went out and did. Seven innings, one hit, zero runs, 12 strikeouts. A complete game shutout on the biggest stage of his high school career, against an Old Bridge team that came in 20-9 and still very much alive in the postseason. Monroe wins 7–0 and ends an 11-year championship drought in the process.

The Falcons' run to the title is one of the better stories of this tournament. Monroe came in as the nine seed, a 15-14 team that most people weren't picking to do much damage. They beat Colonia in the first round, then went into Edison and knocked off the top seed 9–1. They took down South Plainfield 1–0 in the semifinals on a single run. And then Saturday, with nothing left to lose and everything to play for, they put together their most complete game of the tournament against the team with the best record in the field. That is a run worth talking about.

Monroe got on the board early and kept adding to it. The Falcons scored two in the first, one in the second, and three more in the third to build a 6–0 cushion before Old Bridge could find any rhythm at all. Justin Mangano drove in two. Matt Linke went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Alex Marcus reached and scored twice. Kyle Rutan chipped in two RBIs of his own. The offense spread the wealth all game long, giving Faigin exactly the kind of support a pitcher pitching his final game deserves.

Old Bridge managed just one hit on the afternoon, a double by Erich Schikschenet, and never seriously threatened to score. Faigin was simply too good. He located his pitches, filled the zone, and let his defense do its job behind him. Twelve strikeouts across seven innings tells the story, but the one-hit performance tells it even better. Old Bridge has one of the better lineups in Middlesex County and Faigin made them look completely overmatched.

After the final out, Faigin reflected on what the day meant. "It felt nothing short of amazing," he said. "Being able to play that last final game with some of my favorite teammates I've ever played with was the best opportunity anyone could have asked for. We knew going in that it was our last game so we left it all out there for each other. To have one more shot for a win was an opportunity we couldn't let go to waste, especially it being a county final game."

For a pitcher going out knowing the stakes, the challenge is keeping the moment from getting too large. Faigin had that figured out too. "I knew going in that it was a special game but I couldn't let the lights get too bright," he said. "I had to treat it like any other ordinary game. I still had to make my pitches and compete. I wanted to win as much as any guy across the foul lines. There really wasn't a moment until about the fifth inning. Once we took the huge lead, I knew it was our game to lose. But our defense wasn't letting anything through and our offense wasn't going to let up. I couldn't have pitched the way I did without the run support and my confidence that our defense was going to make every play."

Monroe loses a significant portion of its core to graduation, but Faigin made clear he has no doubts about the program's future. "Next year I think we have another amazing chance to win," he said. "I know we have a majority of our core guys graduating but I have so much confidence that we have guys coming up that can make a major difference. We're going to be a team that everyone is going to have to watch out for in the future."

A nine seed. Four wins. A county championship. And a final performance from Ben Faigin that nobody in that ballpark on Saturday morning will forget anytime soon. Monroe baseball is your 2026 GMC champion.