Monsignor Farrell players celebrate their victory over Moore Catholic in Richmond County Youth Complex on Staten Island (Denis Gostev)
Monsignor Farrell is the lone undefeated team left in the CHSAA, but that was in jeopardy yesterday as Staten Island rival Moore Catholic had a four-run lead with three innings left.
But for the second day in a row, the Lions came from behind to pick up a huge league win, scoring five runs in the fifth to beat the Mavericks, 6-5, at Richmond County Youth Complex.
“This game meant a lot to us, realizing that we’re starting to see the finish line a bit,” Farrell coach Bob Mulligan said. “We’re playing well, but what I love about the kids is that they didn’t quit.”
The rally started with an error by Mavericks pitcher Matt Kostalos, who then gave up an infield single by Mike Viegas and walked Mike DePaola to load the bases. Kostalos got ahead of Jordan Stark 0-2, but the Lions left fielder battled back to earn a run-scoring walk.
What followed was nothing dramatic – another walk, a failed fielder’s choice, a seeing-eye single and a walk – but it gave Farrell (11-0), ranked No. 1 in the CHSAA by The Post, a 6-5 lead.
“It’s just going to get harder as we go along and we stay together, battle and show we have heart,” Viegas said. “The biggest thing is that we have faith in each other.”
Connor Meehan came out of the bullpen in the third inning and shut No. 7 Moore Catholic (7-4) down, allowing one run on three hits, striking out five with no walks in five innings of relief to earn the win.
“He just did a great job,” Mulligan said. “Each day someone has been a hero for us and today Connor stepped up. He’s been stepping up and has done a great job for us.”
Meehan had back-to-back quality starts, but he figured he’d likely come out of the bullpen at some point against the Mavs.
“I expected to be in consideration for the bullpen because they have five lefties in the lineup,” he said. “I didn’t really get a big chance to warm up and I wasn’t at my sharpest in my first two innings. I didn’t really feel like I had anything behind my fastball and my curveball. But as the game went on, I felt stronger.”
Farrell, which rallied to beat archrival St. Joseph by the Sea Thursday in Huguenot for the second time this season, has a three-game lead in the CHSAA Staten Island standings with four games to play.
The Lions have a chance to close out the season undefeated. But Farrell hasn’t gotten this far by looking ahead.
“The main goal is to keep the intensity up and we do that by winning,” Meehan said. “We can’t take teams lightly. We have to keep playing our game.”
That continues Tuesday night with a third, and final, regular season meeting with St. Joseph by the Sea at the College of Staten Island.
“We’re not there yet,” Mulligan said. “As big as today is, we’ve still got work to do. We’ve got Sea on Tuesday, which is another big game for us.”