Raiders earn another shot at Immaculata

Fedroff blanks Somerville in SCT quarterfinals

By: John E. Powers
   
   Norm Hewitt, Hillsborough High School’s longtime head baseball coach, has always had a sly sense of humor.
   After the fourth-seeded Raiders beat fifth-seeded Somerville 2-0 Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Somerset County Tournament, Hewitt pondered how tough Immaculata would be in the county semifinals at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater Friday night. When Hewitt was reminded that it was possible that Ridge could have beaten the top-seeded Spartans in another quarterfinal Saturday, Hewitt smiled.
   "You guys want to see us play Immaculata, who are you guys kidding?" joked Hewitt, who started this week with 499 career wins. "Everybody wants to see us go at it with Immaculata."
   Not long after, it was found out that Immaculata, the top seed in the tournament, had in fact beaten Ridge 8-3 to advance to the final four. There were, however, some surprises in the tournament – two of them.
   On the lower side of the bracket, sixth-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan surprised third-seeded Watchung Hills, building a 9-0 lead before winning 9-8 to advance to its first semifinal game in four years. Seventh-seeded Pingry, beaten in the 2003 county final by Montgomery 5-4, defeated the second-seeded Cougars 3-2 to advance.
   "Baseball is a crazy, crazy game and when you find out how to explain it, please tell me," Hewitt said Sunday night.
   So, it’ll be Pingry and Bridgewater-Raritan in the first game of Friday’s semifinal card at 4 p.m. followed by a rematch of last year’s county final with Hillsborough vs. Immaculata at 7 p.m. Hewitt said that senior right hander Rob Kumbatovic would likely start against Immaculata.
   Immaculata head coach Tom Gambino hadn’t named his starter as of press time. Immaculata beat Hillsborough 10-0 in a mercy rule game April 27 at HealthQuest Park in Raritan Township. Hillsborough (11-4) won five straight after that loss. In that game, the Spartans got a complete-game, two-hit effort from junior left-hander Sean McKeown, a Hillsborough resident. Senior right-hander Kyle Morrison, however, is regarded as the Spartans’ No. 1 starter with a 6-0 record.
   Hillsborough senior Tim Fedroff, who blanked Skyland Conference Raritan Division co-champ Somerville (12-6) in a complete-effort Saturday – his second shutout of the Pioneers this year, said that he likens McKeown to a (Seattle Mariners left-hander) Jamie Moyer type relying on off-speed pitches and location. Morrison is a hard-thrower.
   The Raiders are preparing for both.
   Hillsborough beat Immaculata 5-1 in the county final last year – the Raiders’ first county title since 1979 — behind graduated star Drew Campbell after the Spartans had beaten Hillsborough twice during the regular season to win the Skyland Conference Delaware East Division title. Immaculata beat Hillsborough 1-0 to win the SCT in 2004 as Kumbatovic pitched brilliantly but lost.
   Now, Kumbatovic will get an opportunity to avenge that loss, and the one he suffered April 27.
   Fedroff had to be near-perfect Saturday as Somerville threatened throughout the game. On reflection, Hillsborough could have been a victim of an upset if a crazy bounce or two went Somerville’s way.
   Hillsborough got an outstanding effort from Fedroff who pitched a complete-game shutout, allowing six hits and just two walks. But Somerville senior Brett Conner was just as strong and limited Hillsborough to two hits in six innings.
   "Our game plan was to throw strikes and hit strikes," Conner said.
   The difference was that Conner suffered a bit with his control. He walked seven and issued intentional passes to Fedroff in the first, third and fifth innings. The Raiders scored in the first and fifth as senior second baseman Andy Pogorzelski led off both innings with walks. He scored in the first on a wild pitch and scored in the fifth on a sacrifice fly ball to left field by Corey Swickle.
   Hillsborough had at least one base runner in every inning. Matt Zygmund walked with two outs in the third, and stole second. But Jeremy Sporn grounded back to Conner. In the third, Corey Towey singled, but was left at third when Matt Sadin popped to shortstop and Marc Zamarin singled to lead off the fifth, but was left at third when Conner got Zygmund and Sporn to popout and ground back to him.
   "He (Conner) pitched the kind of game he needed to pitch," Fedroff said.
   Somerville threatened a couple of times. In the second, Matt DeMarco doubled with one out, but Fedroff got Brandon Holderbaum to ground out and struck out Len Rutledge looking to end the inning. In the third, Tony Acosta singled with one out and Nick McNamara walked. Brian Davis then singled sharply to right field, but Rocky Palumbo fielded the ball quickly and threw home to catcher Zamarin. The throw was a little high and Zamarin had to come up the line a bit, but he tagged Acosta on the helmet to end the threat.
   "Rocky has a cannon," Zamarin said.
   "I understand what he (Somerville coach Rick Sabol), was thinking," Conner said. "We have to try to score a run there. We had no runners get to second the first time Fedroff pitched against us, so we had the approach that we had to be aggressive."
   "That play changed the whole game; it was huge," Fedroff said.
   Fedroff shut out Somerville on five hits April 17 when the Raiders won 4-0. The Pioneers didn’t advance a base runner to second in that game.
   Hillsborough had to escape one last threat in the seventh. Pat Bray led off and popped out to Zygmund in center. DeMarco then popped to Fedroff. But Brandon Holderbaum singled sharply to left on a full count pitch and Rutledge followed with a sharp hopper that bounced off Fedroff’s glove to Pogorzelski, who fielded the ball and threw low to first baseman Swickle.
   Swickle kept the ball in front of him with Holderbaum stopping at third. But Fedroff came right back to strike out Kyle Lefkus on three pitches, the last a nasty slider out of the strike zone that Lefkus flailed at before the ball hit Zamarin’s glove, marking the final out.
   "This is what I call a masterful performance," Hewitt said after the game.
   The Raiders will be looking for another one Friday night.