CHSAA / 2ND ROUND Xaverian 5 Farrell 4
Xaverian trailed Monsignor Farrell 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth of their second-round CHSAA intersectional playoff game yesterday. Did the Clippers panic? Hardly.
“This was nothing new for us,” said Keith Frerichs, who picked up the win in Xaverian’s 5-4 victory at Molloy College. The Clippers need just one more win in the
double-elimination tournament to advance to the championship game, while Farrell will play the winner of today’s Iona Prep-St. Francis Prep game tomorrow. “We’ve had to come back all year.”
Like a tiger stalking its prey, Xaverian (23-3) waits for its opponent to make a mistake and show a weakness. Then it pounces.
For Farrell (24-3), that came in the sixth. With one out, Joe DeSiena hit a bloop double down the right field line. Then Danny Martinez singled to left, advancing DeSiena to third. Farrell head coach Larry Musanti brought in James Glass to pitch.
Glass, who had been playing left field, quickly appeared to have Martinez picked off first. But Glass made an awful throw to first, which got past Steve Iannuccilli, allowing DeSiena to score and Martinez to move to second.
“We had the guy picked off,”
Musanti said. “But we really dug ourselves a hole with that wild throw.”
The hole deepened when Chris Renna singled to right to drive in Martinez and tie the game. Renna got to second on the throw home and scored the winning run on Sal Candela’s double, another blooper down the right field line.
Farrell came back in the seventh with a leadoff single by Eric Zinke before Frerichs got the next two batters. That brought up Mike Molinini, who hit a two-run homer in the Lions’ four-run fourth. Frerichs plunked him with a 1-2 pitch.
“I didn’t mean to hit him,” Frerichs said. “That was the last thing I wanted to do.”
He quickly recovered to strike out Lou Kass, Frerich’s 12th of the game, to end the threat.
Although games like yesterday’s give him more gray hair,
Xaverian head coach Dennis Canale admires his team’s tenacity.
“I think being down makes us tougher,” Canale said. “Whenever we fall behind, we always seem to score three or four runs right away. Maybe we’re the
‘Comeback Kids.’ I don’t know.”
The Clippers are certainly adept at erasing deficits, but they do a lot of other things well. For instance, Canale used Manny Lora as a defensive replacement behind the plate in the sixth.
With two outs and a runner on third, Frerichs struck out Steve Podlucky on a pitch in the dirt. Lora was able to track the ball down and just get Podlucky at first, saving a run that proved to be decisive.
“Every game it’s someone different,” Canale said. “That’s what makes them so good.”
Christ the King 12, St. Raymond’s 8
The CHSAA playoffs have been filled with clean, crisp play. This game, to say the least, wasn’t. Christ the King (11- 10) took a 12-5 lead into the seventh and St. Raymond’s head coach Ron Patnosh had replaced nearly all of his starters with subs, almost conceding the game. CK wouldn’t let him.
Instead, St. Raymond’s (17-12) got three walks, a hit batsman and two singles to score three times and cut the lead to four runs. CK head coach Nick Melito was forced to bring in Joe Roman to get the final out and finally pick up the save.
The loss ended the Ravens’ season. CK advanced to play the loser of today’s Mount St. Michael-Archbishop Molloy game tomorrow.