Raiders take drubbing in stride

Immaculata gets first one, but more to come

By: Rudy Brandl
   FLEMINGTON — Last year, a disappointing loss to Immaculata at the Health Quest complex marked the low point in the Hillsborough High baseball season. It motivated the Raiders to start a winning streak, one which didn’t stop until they won the Somerset County, Central Jersey Group 4 and State Group 4 championships.
   Hillsborough head coach Norm Hewitt isn’t looking that far ahead just yet, but he and his players are hoping that Thursday’s 10-0 mercy rule loss to the Spartans serves as a wake-up call and propels the team to another May surge. There wasn’t as much frustration on the HHS bench as last season, when the Spartans escaped with their lives in a high-scoring win that clinched the Delaware East Division title.
   What hurt most after last week’s loss to Immaculata was the team’s pride. For the most part, the Raiders took the lopsided defeat in stride.
   "Losing this game hurts, but it’s not the end of the world," said senior center fielder Tim Fedroff, whose first inning single was one of the team’s two hits in the game. "We get to see them at least one more time so we have to put this game behind us and move on."
   If the Raiders defeat Somerville in Saturday’s Somerset County quarterfinals, they’ll most likely face Immaculata in the county semifinals at Commerce Bank Park in Bridgewater May 12. Immaculata will also come to Hillsborough for the second divisional meeting May 16.
   The Spartans (9-0) remained unbeaten in Delaware East play and the Raiders fell two games behind in the league at the halfway mark. Immaculata lefty Sean McKeown hurled an impressive two-hitter over six innings, striking out five and walking two. McKeown surrendered a single to Fedroff in the first inning and a single to Ricky Schwalje in the sixth.
   "He wasn’t overpowering, but he pitched a great game," Hewitt said. "He had good command of all his pitches."
   McKeown even managed to strike out Fedroff, which rarely happens.
   "His pitches moved and he was hitting his spots," Fedroff said. "He didn’t make many mistake pitches. We didn’t ever hit the ball hard against him."
   Raider righty Rob Kumbatovic (3-2) pitched well in the middle of the ball game but was victimized by two rough innings. He gave up a two-run homer to Jeff Bland in the first inning but blanked the Spartans in the second, third and fourth frames. An inning ending double play in the bottom of the fourth kept the score at 2-0 and seemed to energize the Raiders as they came to bat in the fifth.
   McKeown retired the Raiders in order and the Spartans put the game away with a seven-run surge in the fifth inning. Kumbatovic walked four batters, including three straight to force in two runs, before Hewitt replaced him with lefty Dave Andrews. Kyle Morrison took advantage of all the men on base and drilled a three-run triple to make it 9-0.
   "We were behind on every batter and we had too many walks," Hewitt said. "You can’t give a team like this free passes. We had no command of our pitches and we let it get away."
   Immaculata scored the game-ending run in the bottom of the sixth when Bland smacked a sacrifice fly to score Frank Florio, who went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.
   "It’s embarrassing to get 10-runned, but we’ll bounce back," Hewitt said.
   The Raiders did so in the very next game, rolling over Raritan in Saturday’s Shore Challenge. They finished April with a 7-4 record.