By Joseph Staszewski
Donovan Armas immediately thought of former Coach Jack Curran when the senior was in trouble in the top of the seventh inning and Molloy’s season on the line.
Archbishop Stepinac had just scored three times in the sixth to get within a run. It had a runner on second base with one out in the seventh of decisive Game 3 in the CHSAA Class AA baseball playoffs. Armas couldn’t let down Curran, who died in March.
“All I really had in my mind was coach,” said Armas, who puts Curran’s initials in the mound dirt before every inning. “This season has been all about him. That’s our why and we have the biggest why. You think about coach and anything is possible.”
He then proceeded to keep the Stanners’ city title hopes alive. Armas recorded strike-out No. 10 for the game and got Brandon Soto to pop out to John Young at first to close out No. 5-seeded Molloy’s 4-3 win over No. 14 Stepinac in Briarwood Monday afternoon. The Stanners (15-5) advanced to face No. 4 St. Raymond in the CHSAA Intersectional double-elimination tournament.
“He’s always been a calming influence on all of us,” Molloy Coach Brad Lyons said of Curran.
He nearly watched the Crusaders (10-10) come back for the second straight day. They rallied to beat Molloy 2-1 in Game 2 Sunday to force the deciding contest. The Villanova-bound Armas, who allowed three runs on three hits, had the full confidence of his teammates that he wouldn’t let it happen again.
“I knew he was going to get the job done,” centerfielder Liam Slattery said.
Slattery made Armas’ life a bit easier with his bat. He tripled with one out in the first inning and later scored on a Virgilio Jimenz ground out to make it 1-0. Maine-bound shortstop Chris Piteo blasted a 300-plus-foot homer over the fence in left center to extend the lead to 2-0. Molloy appeared to have broken the game open when he singled in Young and Daniel Gaitan to make it 4-0 in the fifth.
“It felt good off the bat and I knew it was threw the hole,” Slattery said.
Armas was cruising at that point, allowing just one hit and facing just one over the minimum through five. In the sixth he surrendered a ground rule double to Brandon Campos to centerfield to put two men on. Joe Signore followed that with a three-run homer to right center to pull Stepinac within 4-3.
The barrage took Armas off guard, but he never let up. He couldn’t lose this game. It was about more than him.
“We are one step closer to getting the championship,” Armas said. “I think we can do it.”
