Pictured are members of the West Orange High School Summer baseball team, which won the Essex County High School Developmental League Silver playoffs championship.
By Josh Baker
Correspondent
WEST ORANGE, NJ – It seems the boys of summer are alive and well in West Orange. Earlier this week, the 2017 West Orange High School Summer baseball team confronted the Montclair team in its first game of the Essex County Developmental Summer League Silver playoffs. Team Coach and Richard Stockton University sophomore Rob Parisi’s biggest concern about their opponent, Montclair, was their pitching staff. Parisi finds Montclair’s pitching quite challenging from previous encounters. “If we can get a couple hits, we’ll have a really good chance of winning.” It turns out Parisi’s plan worked, resulting in a 9-7 victory over Montclair.
“Since Verona is a team we’ve beaten already, our main focus would be to put up a crooked number early on as the away team and make sure to shut them down right after and keep the momentum going in our favor,” said multi-position player Erick Castro.
The WOHS Summer baseball team’s regular season ran from June 12 to July 13. They respectively played Montclair, Belleville, Bloomfield, Cedar Grove, Nutley, Montclair Kimberley Academy, West Essex, Columbia, Glen Ridge, Caldwell, MKA, and Columbia again.
Parisi, a first-year head coach who played baseball all four years for WOHS, led the Mountaineers to a 4-6 season before heading into the playoffs. “This is a total team effort,” Parisi said. That team effort partially came from primary fielders Tyree Bradley and Castro, who “plays wherever I need him to play,” said Parisi.
The team also saw some improvement from newcomer Julian Lee, who plays right field. “He has raw talent, and it’s been nice to see the molding of his talent.” While Parisi still hopes for more interest in the team throughout the town, his simple plan to win long enough to emerge victorious in the end keeps the team going.
“[During] our last two games the boys played exceptionally well with a standout performance from Vincent Desantis, who threw a no-hitter in a 7-2 victory over Verona and overall great team play. After the two wins against Montclair and Verona we are 5-7 going into the championship game against Belleville.” WOHS would go on to defeat Belleville 10-4 Thursday night, July 20.
While most of the current players of the WOHS Summer Baseball Club will return to play in the fall, Coach Parisi will not coach the high school team during the school years since he will be back at Richard Stockton University for his sophomore year.
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