Hillsborough rallies late to shock Old Bridge, 13-6, in CJ4 title game for program’s first title since 2012, third in school history

Things got off to a great start for the Hillsborough baseball team at Fred Cole Field in Old Bridge Thursday. They got two runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Andrew Advani and a wild pitch, giving starting pitcher James Drinkwater some breathing room before he ever walked up onto the hill.

And Advani knocked in a third run with another single in the second to give the Raiders a three-run lead.

All of it would soon disappear, but then Hillsborough pulled some magic of its own, scoring nine runs over the last two innings to stun top-seed Old Bridge, and give the ninth-seeded Raiders a 13-6 win, and the Central Jersey Group 4 championship.

It was their first state sectional title since 2012 – and third in program history – and will give them a home game Monday in the state Group 4 semifinals against Cherokee (25-3), the South Jersey Group 4 champion and top-seed, which was a 5-4 home winner over Eastern Thursday.

The Raiders (14-10) gave up that 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, when Old Bridge (18-11) sent ten men to the plate, after Drinkwater faced the minimum of nine hitters through the first three.

After the Knights loaded the bases on an infield hit, another single, and an E4, Akhil Penkala – Tuesday night’s hero with the walk-off RBI single against Edison in the semifinals – drove in the first run with a single. Erich Shickschneit flew out to center, but the throw to the plate to keep Chris Crosta from tagging sailed to the backstop, and he scored anyway., Noah Balbuena drove in two with a single to give Old Bridge a 4-3 lead, and after a strikeout, Jason Cota drove in a run with a single, and Jared Volpe did the same to make it 6-3 before John Smith popped up to end the inning.

In the top of the fifth, the Raiders cut the lead to two on a sac fly by Brian Quabeck. And Drinkwater came back out and pitched a solid, scoreless fifth, allowing a one-out singe to Justin Hascup, but stranding him.

Then, the offense went to work. The Raiders got four in the top of the sixth on just two hits and five walks. With the bases loaded, Brayden Fox knocked in two with a single to tie it, and the go-ahead run came in from third on a balk with Ale Reiling at the plate. Quabeck knocked in a fourth run with a single to make it 8-6 ‘Boro, sending ten batters to the plate.

And they weren’t done. Drinkwater was taken out to a standing “O” from the Hillsborough faithful after a leadoff walk, and Aidan Cooper got the next three batters to keep Old Bridge off the board.

Then in the top of the seventh, Hillsborough – now even more determined – left no doubt. They piled on five more runs, thanks to an RBI double by Fox, a two-RBI single by Quabeck, who drove in four on the day, and a two-RBI single by Elijah Dawes, who was cut down trying to reach second.

Old Bridge got a man on with a one-out walk in the seventh, but that was all they could muster, as Cooper closed it out with a fly out to right and a pop up to third-baseman Jason Williams, setting off a raucous celebration.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen, with a more detailed game story to follow later on cjsportsradio.com: