McClancy streak, season ends

Any other afternoon, and it would have been merely one of those days.
The 11 walks and four errors and myriad of mental mistakes would have been easily forgotten. The three runners caught off base, too. Unfortunately, for McClancy, they picked the wrong day for a clunker and the absolute worst time to come out flat. Xaverian was not the right opponent, either.
It all added up to an early exit from the CHSAA postseason as the Crusaders were bounced in the elimination round by the Brooklyn powerhouse, 17-4, Monday afternoon at McClancy.
“It wasn’t our day,” manager Nick Melito said. “We were never in the game.”
Right off the bat, when junior right-hander James Roubal walked Clippers leadoff man AJ Passione, Melito said he was uncomfortable. It would lead to just one first-inning unearned run, when third baseman Ryan Blanco booted a would-be inning-ending two-hopper.
Roubal retired the side in the second, but allowed a ringing three-run double by Kyle Antese down the left field line and John Fogareli’s run-scoring two-bagger on back-to-back fastballs in the third. Roubal did not make it through the fourth, and four other pitchers combined to make it even worse by walking seven and yielding 11 more runs.
“We just didn’t throw the ball over the plate,” catcher Stephen Ferguson said. “Stuff like that happens.”
It did not happen, though, throughout their seven-game win streak that led up to this moment, during which Roubal beat Molloy and these very Clippers. “Give them credit, too,” Melito said. “They came out ready to play and they showed it. … It snowballed [on us].”
Despite the lopsided defeat, McClancy has a lot of which to be proud. They finished 11-6 in the league’s toughest division, beat regular-season champion Holy Cross, Molloy, and Xaverian twice, without the services of catcher Joe Liberta (herniated disc) and ace right-hander Nick Condos (torn ligaments in his forearm) at the outset.
“We had a successful season,” Melito said. “I’m not going to let this ruin our season. … We did a lot of good things this year. These kids performed.”