Justin Feil, Contributor
The Hillsborough High School baseball team will look very different from last year when it opens the season Saturday at Morristown., The Raiders graduated 11 seniors last year, including eight starters. Junior left fielder Kyle Wengryn is the only returning starter from a team that went 10-12-1 and reached the Somerset County Tournament quarterfinals. Six of those losses came by one run. Hillsborough is hoping its new-look group can come together quickly to compete in one of the toughest conferences in the state. How fast they can develop will determine how successful they are., “Hopefully we stick to the process,” said third-year head coach Eric Eden. “I tell them all the time, don’t worry about the results, stick to the process and the results will come, don’t be results oriented. That’ll get there. If you stick to the process and do what you’re prepared to do and prepare the right way then we’re going to be OK moving forward. That’s our main mindset with these guys is being able to learn and adjust.”, Just gaining experience at the varsity level will be a huge help. The players that can adjust the quickest and stay consistent will play the most for the Raiders. They have had five scrimmages thus far to try to sort through their roster, but regular practices have been tough in the preseason due to poor weather conditions., “We’ve gotten some scrimmages under our belt,” Eden said. “The nice thing is we have a lot of competition this year with having only one guy returning that played the field. Even in his position, he knows it’s open competition. They’ve really been pushing and really getting at it and trying to prove themselves every day. That makes for a highly competitive environment throughout our program and you can’t ask for anything more.”, The Raiders have a trio of senior captains with center fielder/pitcher Brandon Beck, pitcher Nick Melfi and first baseman Ryan Watson. They are stepping up into a new role as leaders for an inexperienced varsity., “Our senior leadership with those two guys leading it and Ryan Watson and Chris Scala behind the plate, Ryan Joels is another one who had some innings last year in the field and helped out and was up and down last year with JV and varsity, and Matt LaSala who is going to be our third baseman,” Eden said. “The guys have done a great job of trying to push everyone and keep everyone focused and keep them on track.”, Beck and Melfi are Hillsborough’s most experienced returning pitchers. They don’t have 20 varsity innings of experience between them, however, and they will be asked to do more to lead this year’s staff., “We have some younger arms coming up that are below them and are definitely going to help this year,” Eden said. “It goes back to being able to locate more than one pitch and working ahead in the count and keep your head on your shoulders, and if you get hit around a little bit can you bounce back, or if you walk a guy, does it fall apart or do you make the next pitch and get yourself a ground ball? Those are the little things that are going to come with experience., “The biggest thing is when you lose Max Guidice who’s at TCNJ right now, Jeff Serin who’s at Drew, Asher Masten who’s at Broward, when you lose three big power arms, it’s like a whole turnover now with the staff. We have guys that can throw from multiple angles, mix it up, have different pitchers, have different speeds and velocities, so we can mix and match throughout the games especially with the new pitching rule we have this year.”, Pitchers will be limited not based on innings but pitches thrown per game. Like Little League rules, pitch counts dictate how many days rest a pitcher must have before returning to the mound. For instance, a pitcher who throws 30 pitches or more in a game cannot pitch the next day., “I understand why they’re doing it,” Eden said. “I don’t disagree with it. I understand a lot of coaches overuse their pitchers and I understand the benefit of it. I think it’s going to be good for our younger players and the depth that we have, it could possibly help because we do have a lot of quality arms. It’s going to get those guys opportunities early in the year with all hands on deck and matching guys up.”, The Raider pitchers should have confidence in the fielding behind them. Eden is excited about the way the defense is shaping up., “Defensively we have a ton of speed,” he said. “Our outfield, we have four or five guys we can move around and if your bat gets hot you’re going to play. All of them can fly, all of them can track a ball. Our middle infield is phenomenal. Right now at shortstop, we have Steven Grober. He actually committed to Seton Hall. He’s a junior. We have a lot of talent. We have a lot of speed. If we can get on base this year, I think we’ll be able to steal a lot of bases and move guys over and get them in. It’s all going to come down to getting the experience and the reps and being able to adjust. The guys that can make adjustments and figure it out are going to be very, very successful because we have a lot of talent. It’s just that learning process.”, The fielding has done much of its work this spring in the gym after a snowstorm and rain kept them off the field. Hillsborough has tried to make the most of its time inside., “The main thing that it’s going to come down to with the inexperience we have is these guys getting those reps and learning as we go,” Eden said. “Everyone is stuck in the same boat being in the gym. The nice thing about being in the gym is we can really control the environment, isolate things we need to work on and get those reps in. We’re seeing those players progress right now. I think the sky’s the limit. We’re going to have our ups and downs, we just have to make sure we keep our head on our shoulders and keep working.”, The Raiders have shown potential to be dangerous with the bat as well. Hillsborough didn’t have many big scoring games last year, and they’d like to support their pitching with a few more runs this year., “Potentially we can drive the ball,” Eden said. “Potentially I love the bats. I think we’re in between, we have guys that can put it down and fly out of the box, then at the same time some of them are the same guys that can drive the ball in the gap or perhaps put them over the fence. It’s interesting where we’re at with our talent. We’re capable of doing a lot of things. I keep saying, it’s really going to come down to who’s going to be able to stay hot and be able to adjust and be consistent and put themselves in a good position as a team., “It depends on the day,” he explained. “If we’re facing a No. 1 that’s bringing it and is able to mix it up, I think we’re able to be the type of team that can play some small ball. If we’re facing an average pitcher that pounds the zone, I think we’re able to swing away and drive the ball.”, Hillsborough, however, usually gets every opponent’s best pitchers. The Raiders have a strong reputation, and even in a season in which they are rebuilding from significant graduation losses, they don’t expect anything different from opponents or themselves., Said Eden: “We don’t lower the bar and have any different expectations because we believe in the players we have and we do have a lot of talent and still have that high bar and expectation to have a good season.”, They will start conference play at the top with Hunterdon Central visiting on Monday. They are defending state champions but Hillsborough split with them last year in an always loaded Skyland Conference., “Bridgewater is going to be very good, they always are,” Eden said. “Central won the state last year. They lost a couple guys but they have a lot of returners. Central is always very good. I think that’s the team to beat this year, as it is for the last couple years. For the most part, everyone is in the same boat as us. They lost some key players but there’s a lot of young talent coming up through the conference., “I think the Skyland Conference is in a very good place as far as young talent. The young players coming up are all very, very good players and the upperclassmen that are there, we don’t have the experience some of the other teams have after losing 11 seniors, but there is a lot of talent in our conference. Every team that you play, you can’t take anyone lightly. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. It’s going to be who’s more prepared and goes out and has a better day.”, Hillsborough is looking for more good days than bad. The Raiders are anxious to see how their new varsity players react to the tough competition and develop through the year., “I think we’ll have our ups and downs this year because it’s going to be that learning experience,” Eden said. “But if we can keep our head on our shoulders and keep a positive mindset and stick to that process and not worry about results, I think we could have a very successful season.”
