Not even a week ago, the South Orange Legion boys had a shot at making the upcoming county playoffs as a third-place team. They needed to be near perfect, and while the pitching was there, the hitting, as it has been for much of this legion season, was practically non-existent.

After scoring 10 against Newark Academy over the weekend, the Red and Black Legion boys have totaled just two runs in as many games, including a 4-1 home loss to Vailsburg on Wednesday, knocking them completely out of contention.

Against the Seton Hall Prep Legion team (Vailsburg sponsors the Pirates), the locals had no answers for Sam Silvestri’s curveball, and though he pitched well, South Orange’s Nigel Hunter couldn’t keep the visiting boys completely at bay.

South Orange had some chances early against Silvestri but left five men on base during the first two innings, unable to pick up the big hit. In the bottom of the first, the locals had runners at first and second with one out and were unable to even advance the runner to third. In the second, the first three batters of the inning reached base on a walk, error and base hit. Silvestri struck out P.J Conlon, and with the bags juiced and one out, leadoff hitter Joe Meola slapped a liner to left field to drive in Nate Tessler from third, giving the locals a 1-0 lead and their only run of the game.

After a strikeout of second baseman and No. 2 hitter Eli Weiss, Stephen Tamayo came about a foot away from hitting a grand slam over the left field fence but was robbed by the Vailsburg outfielder, leaving the bags full. After that, the locals picked up just two base hits for the rest of the game, as Silvestri was able to shut down South Orange during the next five frames. In total Silvestri struck out eight batters.

“He’s a smart pitcher and he has a good curveball,” said South Orange coach Bob Drechsel. “All year we haven’t been swinging at good pitches, or we take good pitches and swing at bad ones.”

Hunter did his best to keep the boys in the game, giving up three earned runs through 6.2 innings. Vailsburg broke through in the top of the fourth, when the visiting team led off with back-to-back doubles, tying the score at one. Later in the inning, a sacrifice fly brought in the second run. Another sac fly brought home Jon Norwood, who led off the inning with a triple. The final Pirate run of the game came in the top of the seventh, when miscommunication on an infield pop-up, which should have been caught, allowed a runner from third to score. Overall, Hunter surrendered eight hits and five walks in the game, striking out three.

The loss dropped the locals to 10-9 overall, and they have three games remaining before the season ends on Sunday. Overall Coach Drechsel said that he was happy with the progress made this season and with the way they battled against Seton Hall Prep, a team that stands to be big competition in the spring.

“I think we matched up with them well. They got a few more key hits, but I think we’re on par with them,” Drechsel said.