St. Joseph by the Sea’s Lou Mandia takes a cut. (William Thomas)
Ray Kane’s primary job this season has been doing the pitching chart. He tracks the type, location and result of every pitch by St. Joseph by the Sea’s hurlers. Coming off shoulder surgery, the senior couldn’t actually pitch much himself.
“I figured I could help the team in a different way,” Kane said.
On Thursday night, he helped his team in the biggest way.
The burly right-hander enabled the Vikings to stave off elimination by giving up just two runs on four hits with nine strikeouts in a complete-game gem. Fifth-seeded St. Joseph by the Sea knocked off No. 8 All Hallows, 7-2, in a CHSAA Class AA baseball championship round loser’s bracket game at Fordham University.
Sea coach Gordon Rugg considered using ace Brian Russell on two days rest. Russell, in fact, asked for the ball. Instead, he went with Kane, who came into the school as a highly touted hurler, but has been hampered by injuries.
“I bet the parents up there thought I was crazy,” Rugg said.
Kane, making his first league start, was fantastic in the biggest spot of his career by far. He worked his fastball in and out and used his slider to keep the Gaels off balance. Kane didn’t throw a changeup the entire game. He said studying Russell and Chris Falcone, as well as hitters all season, helped him become more of a thinking man’s pitcher.
“At first I was really nervous, but I kept my composure,” Kane said. “I knew if I got through this game, we would be set up.”
Indeed, Russell will be on three days rest tomorrow in another elimination game against St. Raymond at Salesian in New Rochelle. If Sea (15-5) can win that one, it would have Falcone on full rest for Sunday.
The bats certainly helped the cause. The Vikings scored six runs in the first two innings against All Hallows (11-10), which was forced to use outfielder Phoenix Deschamps on the mound Jared James came in with two down in the first after Deschamps struggled with his control. The Gaels were playing their sixth game in four days if you include a resumed contest against St. Francis Prep on Wednesday.
Joe Santigate, who caught Kane, had a big two-run single in the second and Angelo Navetta had two RBIs.
“We scored runs early,” Santigate said. “Yesterday we had a tough day at the plate.”
Sea lost a heartbreaker against Fordham Prep on a wild pitch in the ninth inning. Kane was in the dugout tracking pitches for Navetta, who threw an absolute gem and deserved better — he had to leave the game with cramps with one out in the ninth. About 24 hours later, Kane was back at Fordham, this time on the mound with his team potentially seven innings away from the end of its season.
The kid who does the pitching charts came through in a big way. Kane said it’ll be a game he’ll always remember.
“It helped me, studying hitters all year,” Kane said. “Especially watching Russell and Falcone carve hitters up all year. I knew I wasn’t them, but I was trying to do my best I could. I wasn’t trying to be them.”
Being Ray Kane was more than enough to keep Sea’s season alive.