Season Wrap-Up: Fine Pitching Highlighted West Orange Baseball Season

West Orange High School's baseball season had enough twists and turns this past season. The Mountaineers were 13-5 at one point, scoring a memorable 8-0 victory over Seton Hall Prep April 14 as senior right-hander Giovanni Loretto pitched a two-hit, complete-game shutout.

The Mountaineers suffered a five-game losing streak to end the season. But on reflection, coach Stephan Zichella believed his team surpassed the season's expectations. The Mountaineers lost quite a bit of offensive punch and the pitching staff for the most part was unproven.

"Looking back, it was a great year," said Zichella. "There were a lot of highs, some early, some in the mid season. I thought we played some of the best baseball that we had in years."

The Mountaineers had terrific pitching throughout the season with senior right-hander Cory Feigenbaum, Loretto and junior right-hander Adam Miller turning in one fine performance after another. Feigenbaum set the early-season pace when he shut down Caldwell 9-2 in a complete-game effort.

Feigenbaum, who is headed to Rowan University next year, won four games with an outstanding 2.67 earned run average. He also hit .440. Loretto was 4-2 for the season and also had an earned run average below three runs per game.

"The pitching was outstanding," the coach said. "It was very, very strong. We can't be too fussy with how things unfolded.

"We thought pitching might be a problem," he added. "But Cory, Giovanni and Adam Miller kept us in a lot of games."

The games were in the competitive Super Essex Conference American Division, which included Greater Newark Tournament champ Seton Hall Prep and North 2 III champ Millburn, the GNT runnerup.

Zichella mentioned Feigenbaum's walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh that beat Montclair 3-2. Loretto pitched a complete-game four hitter for the win.

Miller pitched a five-inning three-hitter, permitting one earned run and struck out two in a 13-1 rout of Belleville.

The Mountaineers came back the day after beating Seton Hall Prep with a 9-7 win at Nutley. Senior Alex Bahia led the way with a double, a home run and four RBI. Feignbaum and senior left fielder Joe Boettinger each had two hits for West Orange and Miller pitched a complete game. Senior catcher Thomas Attamante, who led the soccer team to a North 1 Group IV title in the fall, was outstanding on defense and a solid leader.

Trenk injured his hamstring and was lost for a couple of weeks. Trenk, who hit in the mid .300s, will attend Brandeis University in Boston.

"That really hurt," said Zichella of losing Trenk to the injury. 

Sophomore Nick Mockabee showed promise; junior Frank Bakirtzis hit a couple of long, early-season homers