West Orange Baseball, Softball Teams Lose in County Tournament

West Orange High School baseball coach Steve Zichella had tried to sound the alarm since the seedings of the 79th annual Greater Newark Tournament were revealed two weeks ago. Dangerous pitchers and talented teams were all around no matter the seed they carried, Zichella warned.

Saturday night, No. 2 seeded West Orange felt what its coach had been talking about.

The Mountaineers lost to 15th seeded Belleville 4-3 in a county tournament first-round game. Belleville is 7-11, while West Orange fell to 11-5.

What makes the loss tougher to take was that Mountaineer senior righty Corey Feigenbaum had a perfect game, going into the seventh inning and West Orange holding a 3-0 lead, but Belleville scored four runs.

"It's not hard to fathom" said Zichella. "It's reality. We play in a county tournament; we face kids who are good pitchers. We shut them down for the entire game. It's sad, but it's something we all experience. It happens. It just seems like all the wheels come off. We made a lot of mistakes. We needed to make some plays in that last inning."

Trouble started immediately when Armani Caceres' flyball to left was lost in the lights and turned into a leadoff triple. Winning pitcher Gabe Rivera followed with a single to drive in Caceres and cut the Mountaineers lead to 3-1. 

John Brondo then singled with two outs to move pinch-runner Arani Caceres, Armani's twin, to third. The throw from right field came in to third and got away, allowing Brondo to move to second base. Joe Anello then reached on an infield error to allow Arani Caceres to score and cut the West Orange lead to 3-2. Brondo advanced to third on the play. Brondo  scored the tying run on a passed ball as Carlos Marzan, running for Anello went all the way to third on the play. Keith Everett then lofted a fly ball to the outfield that was dropped, allowing Marzan to score. Belleville led 4-3.

"It was a comedy of errors, a series of errors," Zichella said. "We just couldn't stop it. I've been on both sides of games like this. It's a tough pill to swallow because our kids work so hard, care so much, put so much effort into it. I feel awful for the seniors. We wanted to make a memorable run in the counties."

Zichella felt especially bad for Feigenbaum."He's been fantastic he kept battling," Zichella said. "He never blamed anybody. He handled himself exceptionally well. I'm very proud of him the way he conducted himself. He's a warrior who’s come a long way."

West Orange took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth on Giovanni Loreto's two-run double. Loreto came home on the same hit on an overthrow.

The softball team also fell in the county tournament, losing to ninth seeded Bloomfield 7-0. Bloomfield's Melany Zeller hit a two-out grand slam homer in the second inning was the key hit.  Debbie Mazzeo pitched a two-hitter, striking out two and walked two. She reitired the final 11 batters of the game West Orange, the eighth seed, is 13-5.