Feigenbaum's Hitting, Pitching Leads West Orange Rout

Corey Feigenbaum is in a comfort every baseball player craves.

Every pitch the West Orange senior third baseman/pitcher sees he seems to hit hard.

He's hitting .395 with two homers in addition to being the leader of a strong pitching staff along with senior Giovanni Loreto and junior Adam Miller.

Feigenbaum went 3-for-3 with a homer, triple and double, scoring three runs and driving in three in Saturday night's 13-1 whipping of Super Essex Conference American Division rival Columbia in West Orange. His two-run homer in the fourth gave the Mountaineers a 12-1 lead.

The win kept West Orange atop the division standings.

Feigenbaum won his fourth game on the mound, throwing four innings, allowing five hits, striking out four and allowing one run. He's 4-2 on the season. Miller finished with a scoreless fifth — the game ended after Columbia batted in the fifth because of the merc rule.

West Orange will bring its 9-3 record into today's American Division battle with Seton Hall Prep. The Mountaineers blanked Prep 8-0 at home April 14th behind Loreto's complete-game shutout.

With players like Loreto and  Feigenbaum, the Mountaineers have proved to be a very difficult out for opponents in a very tough league.

"He's unconscious at the plate," said West Orange coach Steve Zichella, whose team bounced back from a 3-1 loss Friday to Millburn. "He's very, very good. He's one of the hottest players in the state."

Zichella coached Feigenbaum in the seventh grade.

"Coach told me to put in what I want out of it," said Feigenbaum. "Ever since I've started playing for Zichella I've had a good work ethic. This is the biggest season of my life and I’m happy the work is paying off."

Feigenbaum said that the baseball is looking "pretty big." He went 2-for-3 with an RBI in last Saturday night's 13-1 rout of Belleville in West Orange, then went 2-for-4 with a homer Monday when the Moutnaineers beat Columbia 9-2 in Maplewood.

"Everything looks big," he said. "I'm seeing where the ball is going; I'm seeing the spin on the ball."

Feigenbaum said the pitch he hit for the homer against Columbia was especially tasty. It was the first pitch he saw in that at bat.

"It was a nice, juicy fastball, on the inside half of the plate," he said.

Left fielder Joe Boettinger went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI in the five-inning mercy-rule win over Columbia. First baseman Giovanni Loreto went 1-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI and center fielder Alex Bahia scored two runs.

[Editor's note: This story first published May 3 at 9 a.m.]