Seton Hall Prep Dominates West Orange

This time, it was very, very different.

Seton Hall Prep's baseball team avenged an 8-0 setback to West Orange April 14 with a five-inning 10-0 mercy-rule victory Monday afternoon.

The Pirates, now 11-3, got a strong outing from junior righty Mike Sheppard III, who pitched a complete-game, five-inning, two-hitter. Sheppard, the son of coach Mike Sheppard Jr., struck out 11, walked two and hit three batters. The mercy-rule came when senior John Norwood hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Seton Hall Prep has won eight straight after a 3-3 start. West Orange is 9-4.

"We're playing with more consistency," said coach Sheppard. "We're playing good. We didn't make any errors today and the pitching is starting to come around." 

He added, "We're improving that's for sure. It's a matter of getting on the field, getting more comfortable with playing outside. There was no rhythm, no continuity, hopefully that will come as its gets a little warmer."

The Pirates lost to West Orange senior starter Giovanni Loreto last month. Loreto pitched a complete-game two-hitter. The next day, the Pirates lost a wild 4-3 eight-inning game to Montclair. They haven't lost since, scoring an average of more than nine runs per game.

The Pirates also avenged an early-season loss to Livingston in the streak. "Two of our losses were against pitchers who had great games," said Sheppard, who referred to Loreto and Livingston's Brian Drapeau who beat the Pirates 6-2 April 9 with six strong innings.

"Loreto pitched a great game and the Livingston pitcher did a great job. In the Montclair game our pitchers combined to strike out 16. But we lost 4-3 in eight innings. Hey, that's baseball."

Monday's victory got the Pirates back into a first-place tie with West Orange in the Super Essex Conference American Division.

"West Orange is a league opponent and you want to play well," coach Sheppard said. "As far as town rivalries or any animosity or bad feelings, we don't feel it. We lost 8-0 the first time we played them, their pitcher pitched a a great game and they deserved it. We don't want to be shut out by West Orange or anybody else we play."

The Pirates scored three in the first, tacked on two in the third and five more in the fifth to end it. West Orange made six errors and walked six batters and hit another.

Seton Hall Prep had seven hits — three against starter and loser Adam Miller, and four more against Matt Scalora. Junior D.J. Link had a single and two RBI and sophomore Tim Hoehn was 1-for-2 with two RBI.

Senior Joe Boettinger and Rob Trenk had the West Orange hits.