By Justin Feil, Packet Media Group
The Hillsborough Senior Legion baseball team is heading back to the playoffs, and that bodes well for next year’s varsity baseball team at Hillsborough High School.
The Legion team finished third at 9-6-1 in the competitive Pyramid Baseball League, and was scheduled to find out by today where they will open the state tournament.
“My spiel last year was the last team to advance out of the regular season of the Pyramid League went on to win the county championship,” said Hillsborough manager Matt Mosko. “Then last year, I told them the same thing, and they won the county again. I don’t know if it’s pure coincidence. Out of the teams that don’t play older kids, we finished first.”
Flemington and North Warren finished first and second respectively in the Pyramid standings. Flemington swept Hillsborough in a doubleheader to finish the regular season Sunday, but Hillsborough’s team is feeling good about the way it can compete in states.
“There’s been tremendous improvement from the first game we played until even this Sunday,” Mosko said. “We ran into a buzz saw of a team. We were trying to manufacture runs here and there. We had the opportunity to put up more runs, but unfortunately only scored one run each game. They’re competitive against the older teams and they’re beating the young teams. It’s a good training tool for the fall season which will turn into their winter training season and into the spring when we hope we’ll have a run at the counties and states.”
Hillsborough was followed in the Pyramid standings by Phillipsburg, Warren Hills, Belvidere, Montgomery, Delaware Valley and Hackettstown. Aside from the top two teams, Hillsborough has handled the competition.
“We came in first out of the best of the rest,” Mosko said. “Friday night, we played a double header against Montgomery. We faced two very, very good pitchers. One is going to Franklin and Marshall. Another is a junior going to be senior who is going to St. John’s. We were able to get by both of them. It was a really cool moment. That’s the kind of momentum I want to build going into playoffs.”
Mosko has two dedicated assistant coaches in Brian and Kevin Toro. Both played at Hillsborough and have helped to bring along a team that combines players with varsity experience from last year with players who expect to be moving up from the junior varsity.
“It’s been an inconsistent year from some respects,” Mosko said. “It’s very different than in the past. We have quite a few guys playing travel.”
Between travel commitments, vacations and a couple of critical injuries, Hillsborough hasn’t had its full team together for many games. Mosko expects that to be different once the states start.
“This weekend, we lucked out,” he said. “There’s nothing else going out. I’m down a couple guys going on vacation and one or two doing something else. I should have 12-13 there and I’ll ask a few guys from Junior Legion to come up for spare arms.
‘When we play the good teams, I remind them, this is what you’re going to see on a regular basis next year at the varsity level. A lot of the guys on the team, they’re mostly JV players. The level of baseball that they saw, it’ll be nothing like the level of baseball we’ll see this weekend. Our pitching has been tremendous all year. Our defense has been fantastic all year. It’s just a matter of how much we can hit. That’s been the most inconsistent aspect. We had a stretch of three games with 10 hits. Then we’d have 10 hits in one game.”
Even if its hitting is down, Hillsborough can still stay in any game because of its pitching and defense. They will need more of the same in states.
“Ryan Joels has been a very pleasant surprise,” Mosko said. “I’d say he’s started four or five games and I don’t believe he’s given up more than two or three runs in those games. Dan Stoddard, he went back and forth between JV and varsity last year, he’s come out this year and proved he’ll be one to be reckoned with next year on varsity. He’s one of the guys that the team can follow. He’s a leader. He’s started three or four games. He’s doing a lot of things we’ve been working on. He’s carried over the lessons. He’s taken the things we want him to and put them into game situations. We worked on pick-offs in camp, and against North Warren that day he picked off two.”
Joels also splits time at second base with Elias Ku. The two have been forced into more time there after the loss of Zach Tackach to a dislocated kneecap. In addition Jeff Serin hasn’t pitched all year.
“We lost a starting middle infielder for the rest of the year,” Mosko said. “That was a huge loss. Even losing Jeff, he was supposed to be one of the top two starters for the high school team. He was going to be looked upon to be a contributor and one of the leaders for the team.”
Instead, Hillsborough has been relying on some less experienced players, but they have performed well. Joels and Ku have shored up the second base position.
“They’ve been doing a good job holding down the position, making all the routine plays and some that are exciting,” Mosko said. “Eric Zickert has been shortstop. Max Guidice has been our main first baseman. He’s been one of our most consistent hitters. Chris Scala has been a tremendous bat in the lineup. He’s one of the catchers on the team.”
Chris Vadinsky and Alec Lee have been playing third base, and Zach Maggio and Phil Sabatino catch along with Scala. Brandon Beck can do a little of everything. He plays outfield, shortstop and has pitched as well. The outfield also features Mike Engelhardt and Mike Ur.
“Mike Engelhardt who was second team all-conference this spring, and he plays mostly center field and left field for us,” Mosko said. “Mike Ur has played a tremendous outfield for us. Wherever they are fly balls aren’t going to drop, and they have tremendous arms. We’ve cut two or three runners at the plate.”
Mike Steeneck and Alec Romanowski also play outfield. Adam Kanter has contributed, mostly as a reliever. Several of the Legion players did come in with varsity experience that made the transition to the Senior League easier.
“Engelhardt, Ur and Zickert were varsity, and Max Guidice was one of top relievers toward the end of the year,” Mosko said. “Maggio and Sabatino bounced between catcher and outfield and Zach Tackach at second base, those were the guys that saw a majority of time on varsity. A couple other guys bounced back and forth between JV and varsity.”
They are using the summer to continue to develop as players and a team. Making the state tournament gives them a chance at a few more games at a high level to test themselves and prepare for next year.
“Last year, we were two and done,” Mosko said. “When we were down at Mercer County, we played two teams from there, and I’m sure they were comfortable playing on their field and how the umps call things. I’m hoping where we go, I’d like to go back to Mercer County again to give these guys a taste of what high level of baseball is there.”
