Sheehan Sensational

In 48 years at Molloy, Jack Curran cannot remember a season quite like this one on the mound. When starter James Hounsell abruptly quit the team in favor of track & field, the Stanners’ depth went with him.
“This has been the most unsettling pitching situation we’ve ever had,” Curran said.
The big two of Dennis O’Grady and Mike McCann were enough to reach the postseason, but after splitting the first two games of their best-of-three playoff series with St. Joseph’s by the Sea, it was a toss up between shortstop Pat Sheehan and Jared Macchirole, still not 100 percent healed from an arm injury.
Curran said he planned to play the elimination game as an exhibition - using several pitchers an inning apiece. Curran decided to go with Sheehan, who had not pitched in six weeks, on an emergency basis.
Emergency starter? Try staff ace.
Sheehan, who pleaded with Curran for the opportunity when they arrived at the ballpark, went the distance in a complete-game four-hitter, striking out two, walking five and stranding seven base runners in an efficient 103-pitch effort, leading the Stanners (15-6) to a 2-1 series-clinching victory over St. Joseph’s by the Sea (Staten Island) Sunday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium on the campus of St. John’s University.
Thanks to the Marist-bound right-hander, who also drove in senior Kevin Roberts with the tying run in the second, Molloy moves into the CHSAA eight-team double elimination tournament, beginning this week.
Curran wasn’t immediately sold on Sheehan, the team’s everyday shortstop at first; that was until further lobbying by senior backstop Frank DeMaria. “My catcher talked me into it,” he said.
Sheehan has shown he can handle top competition. In his last time on the hill, the Floral Park native handed Holy Cross their first league loss. But his inability to command his curveball and the team’s need up the middle, kept him off the mound.
Against the Vikings, he had surprising control of both his pitches, particularly the breaking ball, which he used almost as much as his fastball. “Today it was just working,” he said.
“The command was great,” DeMaria said. “His curveball was moving a lot.
After a rocky start - Sheehan allowed a run on two hits in the first inning - he was in command the rest of the way. He induced leadoff man Joe Laino into a 6-4-3 double play in the fourth with runners on the corners, a sparkling twin killing started by senior Kevin Roberts up the middle, beautifully turned by O’Grady around the bag, and scooped out of the dirt by Dave Bellinger. “I felt so much more confident after that play,” he said.
Sheehan retired six in a row over the next two innings, and after putting two on with one out in the seventh, jammed Frank Balzofiore with an inside fastball and got Ralph Tufano to meekly ground to O’Grady for the final out.
“I just had faith in myself,” he said.
“As a team we have a lot of confidence in Pat,” said Roberts, who plated junior Tom Boggiano with the game-winning sacrifice fly in the fifth. “He has a lot of heart. We knew he could get the job done.”