By Joseph Staszewski
Archbishop Molloy was unable to grab the top seed in the CHSAA Class AA baseball championship tournament, but remains one of the favorites to bring home the city title.
The Stanners couldn’t muster enough clutch hitting to support eight solid innings from starter James McCleary in a 4-3 loss over nine innings to St. Joseph by the Sea with a chance to be the No. 1 seed on the line Sunday afternoon in Briarwood.
A throwing error in the top of the ninth erased the chance for a double play and allowed the Vikings to score the eventual winning run.
“We left a few guys in scoring position,” said second-year Molloy Coach Brad Lyons. “It was just a good game between two good teams. A lot of times the team that makes the mistake first, they don’t win the game. We made the mistake. It happens.”
Molloy, the Brooklyn/Queens division champion, will be the No. 2 seed when it begins its quest for the title May 28 against No. 8 St. Francis Prep. The Stanners will have ace Anthony Catinella and No. 2 starter Scott Hannon on full rest for the first two rounds.
The Stanners (15-3), which beat Fordham Prep 13-0 the day before, trailed St. Joseph by the Sea 3-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth. Pinch hitter Michael Rossi delivered a two-out, two-run single high off the fence in left against Sea starter Mike Russell to tie the score at 3-3. He was ahead 2-0 in the count, but Rossi was looking to be aggressive.
“I knew he was going to throw me a fastball,” Rossi said. “I just wanted to give it a ride.”
Molloy had a chance to take the lead when Dylan Lanigan, who had two hits, singled to right. Vin Moss rounded third, but Lyons held him up at the last second, getting him tagged out between home and third to end the frame. The hard-throwing Steve Withers came on in relief for Sea (15-3) in the seventh and recorded seven of the next nine outs via strikeout.
“You tip your hat to him,” Lyons said of Withers. “The kid came in and challenged it. He was better than us today.”
McCleary turned in a fine outing in defeat. He had good control of his fastball, allowed three runs on 10 hits and did not walk a batter.
Sea had gotten on the board in the third with an RBI triple from Withers and a sac fly from Angelo Navetta to make it 2-0.
Molloy stranded batters with the bases loaded with one out in the third after hitting into a double play. The Stanners picked up a run in the fifth, thanks to an RBI-single from Nick Morici, but saw Sea make it 3-1 on a Steve Arancio sac fly in the sixth.
McCleary, who eventually gave way to reliever Jonathan Meditz, stranded runners on second and third base twice in the eighth to keep his team in the game.
“That last inning shows you what James is made of,” Lyons said. “He had already given us seven great innings and it would have been really easy for him to fold there.”
The Stanners aren’t ready to pack it in either. They hope this is just the start of a long playoff run. Molloy has all the tools to make it happen.
“We know that we have the pitching,” McCleary said. “We know we can hit. We have the defense. We should have won this game, but we can beat any team.”
