A 9-6, seventh-inning lead in a Somerset County Tournament quarterfinal had evaporated into a 10-9 walk-off loss to Immaculata. Hillsborough High School’s baseball team found itself with an 8-10 record as playoff time approached.
A six-day break was ahead before Skyland Conference inter-division and final regular season games at Watchung Hills and Phillipsburg, then the first round of the Central Group 4 tournament where Hillsborough held the ninth seed.
Adding to the intrigue was that it was prom weekend with senior “cut” day on Monday.
What kind of Raiders team would return after such a wrenching loss that denied them a trip to play a county semifinal at TD Bank Ballpark?
“We had a meeting the day after the loss and the kids all said they would be back that Monday and they kept their word,” said Hillsborough coach Matt Mosko, 34, a 2009 Hillsborough graduate and former catcher. “It said a lot about the maturity and dedication level of our team.”
Mosko, who finished his fourth season as Raider coach, is the Courier News 2025 Baseball Coach of the Year.
The Monday practice turnout suggested a team united, but then the Raiders showed it.
They won six straight, becoming the lowest seeded team in the state to win a section title. They won at No. 8 Freehold Township, top seed Hunterdon Central and returned home to host neighbor and No. 12 seed Montgomery in the section semifinal.
They capped the run with a 13-6 win at No. 2 Old Bridge in the final. They were beaten 11-0 in the state semifinal by eventual champ Cherokee.
Hillsborough won its third sectional title in the program’s 54-year history and first since 2012. It celebrated its first winning season since 2019, finishing 14-11.
“There was too much bad going around about ‘Boro baseball that was not deserved and it was awesome to prove them wrong and show what we had,” said senior catcher Alex Reiling, a three-year starter.
The Raiders’ campaign was one of contrasts. They got out to a 5-1 start, lost three consecutive, won a game and then lost four in a row to drop to 6-8.
“After a hot start, the kids sensed we could play with anyone,” Mosko said. “Having that kind of first two weeks lit a fire in them that dimmed a little in the middle part, but we knew it was in there to finish off the season. We stuck with a solid nine in our lineup, relied heavily on three or four pitchers the last three weeks, and it worked.”
The players appreciated how steadfast their coaches were in believing in them.
“Coach kept us levelheaded the whole season, whether we were winning or losing, it kept us locked in the whole time,” Reiling said. “He knew our potential and continued to tell us that and made us believe how special we were and what we could do.”
Mosko, a social studies teacher at Auten Middle School in Hillsborough, has seen and known his players as they have grown. He said several times over the course of the season that this group of players had promise to deliver.
“The kids knew we had a talented roster, and things would work out for us if we played solid baseball, which we did the last three weeks of the season,” Mosko said. “Good teams are led most of the time by solid leaders and we had them in Alex Reiling, Andrew Advani and Jason Williams who stepped up, vocally as the season went along.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: CN Coach of the Year is Hillsborough’s Matt Mosko
