The Hillsborough Terriers recorded a signature win early in the season, knocking off defending 8A State Champions and nationally-ranked Steinbrenner 4-3.

After being held to three runs or less in each of their first four games, the Terriers bats have woken up. Hillsborough scored 12 runs in a Tuesday win over Chamberlain and scored two runs in each of the first two innings against Steinbrenner to jump out to an early lead.

Jarrod Cande's solo home run in the top of the first inning gave the Terriers a 1-0 lead.  Bryce Blanco was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to push across Hillsborough's second run.

In the second, an RBI single from Nick Romano and an infield single from Terrence Doston that scored Ole Miss-signee Tim Elko from second base accounted for the runs.

Steinbrenner rallied behind junior catcher Noah Luke. The backstop had an RBI single to score Florida State-signee CJ Van Eyk in the bottom of the fourth and a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to bring the Warriors within a run.

But Cande stepped to the mound in the seventh to close the deal for Hillsborough, striking out two Warriors and inducing a weak grounder to give the Terriers a win over Steinbrenner, who was ranked as high as third in the nation by MaxPreps before their loss on Tuesday to Plant.

Both teams enter Saladino Tournament pool play on Saturday.  Hillsborough (4-2) faces Blake, while Steinbrenner (5-2) will look to bounce back against East Bay.