Connor Collora is making the most of every opportunity that he gets with the Bordentown Regional High School baseball team.
Every inning on the mound, every opportunity in the field, and whatever at bats he gets.
Next year, his focus will be narrowed. The bat will be taken out of his hands when he joins the La Salle University baseball team as a pitcher. College pitchers almost always focus exclusively on pitching.
“I’m just trying to enjoy every at bat because this is the end of it,” said Collora, who plans to study business in college. “And I’ve been playing baseball and hitting my whole life, so it’s kind of weird to just think about it all stopping. But I’m trying to enjoy what’s left of it.”
Collora will still have plenty of baseball left as he fulfills his dream to play college ball. And at the high school level, his last year has him taking on a larger role than he’s had in previous seasons for the Scotties, who are the defending Burlington County Scholastic League tournament champions.
“This year I knew he was going to be playing pretty much every inning when he wasn’t pitching, he was going to be playing third,” said Bordentown coach Chris Glenn. “He plays second for us too. He’s versatile in that way. Last spring I wasn’t sure hitting wise how he was going to do and he was fantastic, and he’s kind of picked up where he left off last year at the beginning of this season.”
Collora’s future is as a pitcher and that’s where he brings the most to the Scotties. Bordentown graduated some very good pitchers in Conor Bell and Elijah Tradigo, but Collora along with Andrew Forster and Tyler Rossell have led a staff that put up promising numbers in the first three weeks of this season.
“Our starting pitching has been fantastic,” Glenn said. “They’ve pretty much kept us in every game. I’ve just been impressed with the growth that Connor and Andrew and Tyler have shown coming into this season. Hopefully our bats kind of catch up a little bit. But right now they’ve been dominant on the mound. They’ve been doing great for us.”
Bordentown got out to a 5-1 start before a couple of tough-luck losses. The pitching has been lights out with Collora beginning his last year with a 1.17 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 18 innings. Forster, a junior, was nearly identical with a 1.15 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.
Rossell, another senior, held a 1.75 ERA through his first eight innings of work. Combined the three had walked just 14 batters in 44 innings.
“The more confident you are in yourself, the better you usually perform,” said Collora.
He’s been gaining some each year. This is the third season that Collora has been contributing on the mound. As a sophomore, he didn’t hit but he held a 1.91 ERA as he got his feet wet with 11 innings at the varsity level.
Last year, his innings doubled and he struck out 28 with an ERA of 2.70. This year, he’s off to his best start yet and notices a difference being a senior now.
“I’d say the biggest thing is the confidence,” he said. “The more and more I’ve been able to pitch at the higher level, the more confident I’ve gotten in myself and I’ve been able to perform better through that confidence.”
The improvements haven’t come by accident. Collora has been playing baseball and developing his tools year-round.
“He just works and really it’s a credit to him because he does a lot of work in the offseason,” Glenn said. “Just this past offseason, he’s put on weight, he’s put on muscle, he’s in the weight room, he works with this pitching coach. The last couple of years he’s been good for us because he’s always around the plate. He’s got three different pitches that he can throw at any time. But this year he just put some velocity on his fastball and it’s noticeable. It’s really helped him a lot.”
The improved velocity is especially effective with his best pitch — his change-up. The 6-foot-4 Collora also played forward the past two winters for the Bordentown basketball team. He was a bigger part of that team too this winter, but it’s baseball that has always been his great passion and kept him pushing to reach the college level on the diamond.
“I’ve been in love with baseball my whole life, so that’s always pretty much been the goal,” Collora said. “But probably around my sophomore year was when I realized that I could actually get to that level if I just continue to work.”
His work in the weight room and in the offseason and attention to details has helped him steadily improve. He feels more confident in his abilities to get batters out from the experiences he has had.
“Just the repetition of using different pitches in different counts, and continuing to have trust in my pitches has helped me throughout to have full confidence in myself,” he said.
He’s thrilled to have the chance to help the team in the field and at the plate as well. After batting .293 last year with most of his hits being singles, he started the 2025 season hitting .300 through eight games and his doubles had already tripled from a year ago.
“I just try and do my job pretty much whenever,” he said. “Whatever it is, I just try and get my job done to help the team.”
Collora is hoping that he can help bring Bordentown more success. The Scotties are accustomed to winning (they went 17-11 last year and were 7-1 in the BCSL Patriot Division). This year the expectations are as high as ever.
“I definitely thought we could win our division,” Glenn said. “I definitely thought that we could get another bid to the Diamond Classic this year. And to be honest, in the state tournament if you have a couple guys that can go on the mound, you’re usually pretty well set up. And we have three that I would feel confident in any day putting out there.
“So I would say the outlook a couple of months ago going in, I knew a couple of the young guys were going to need to fill in and they’ve done well so far. I think they’re just going to continue to grow so I think when we get to May, we’re going to be pretty tough to beat.”
One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle that the pitching staff has gotten to work with is new catcher Ryan Wood. The junior has stepped into a void and been able to work with a talented group of arms to set up the defensive side of the ball.
“It’s been huge for us to have him stepping up because we literally had nobody else,” Collora said. “He’s been working really hard and he’s been getting much, much better. He improves every game and he keeps putting in the work. It’s huge for us.”
Collora is one of the seven seniors on the roster along with Matt DiGiovanna, Anthony Dziubak, Luke Guire, Nick Carlini, Dustin Kang and Rossell. They are trying to lead the Scotties on a deep run in their final scholastic seasons.
“We have a very good team and as some of the younger guys get a little more experience throughout the year, I think that our team is really going to start turning it up a notch,” Collora said. “I think that we should definitely be in contention for our conference, but also I think we can do pretty well in states.”
That won’t be the end of the line for Collora. He will be moving on to a summer league for college-bound and players already in college. That will help him continue to grow as he prepares to take on the next level of hitters.
“It’s going to be a big transition going from playing high school kids to some grown men,” Collora said. “But I’m excited and really looking forward to the challenge.”
Connor Collora at the plate for Bordentown High baseball.,
