The CHSAA seeding round – which decides the spots for the four regular-season division winners in the playoffs – is many things to many people. Some coaches hate it; others are ambivalent.
On Sunday, Nick Doscher thought it was huge. Moore Catholic had come into it after a disappointing loss to Monsignor Farrell and promptly dropped the first game against St. Raymond on Wednesday.
“This team has never been here,” the Mavericks coach said. “That’s why it’s important. To win the [division] and come in fourth, it defeats the purpose.”
He won’t have to worry about that anymore.
Moore Catholic knocked off Fordham Prep, 5-2, at Richmond County Youth Complex to earn the No. 3 seed in the CHSAA championship round, which begins Wednesday. Fordham heads into the eight-team, double-elimination round of the playoffs as the No. 4 seed.
“We definitely needed a win today,” Moore starter John Baggs said. “We didn’t want to come in losing three in a row. Now we have a little momentum going in.”
Baggs was his typical steady self, giving up two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts in five innings. He threw strikes and flashed something new – a sidearm curveball he used primarily against left-handed hitters.
His biggest goal? Keeping Fordham Prep’s Virginia Tech-bound star Anthony Velazquez off base. In the first, Velazquez reached on a single and came around to score after two stolen bases and a Zach Leone sacrifice fly. After that, Baggs got him to fly out to center and struck him out looking.
“I didn’t want him to get back on base after the first time,” Baggs said.
The big left-hander was removed after the fifth for Anthony LoBello, who pitched two perfect innings of relief for the save. Baggs was on a 75-pitch limit and will likely come back Thursday for the second game of the championship round. Shea Spitzbarth, who has been Moore’s No. 1 starter this year, will throw Wednesday.
Bobby Drake tied the game at 1 for Moore in the second inning with an RBI single and Chris Wolf slapped a two-run double to right field in the fourth to make it 3-2, a lead the Mavs wouldn’t relinquish. Neither Drake nor Wolf are regulars in the lineup, but Doscher had a good feeling about both with Fordham left-hander A.J. Pinto on the mound.
“Hunches worked out today,” Doscher said.
Moore didn’t get one of the top two seeds, which was a goal, but the Mavericks will take the No. 3 seed. The No. 4 seed could be on a collision course with St. Joseph by the Sea, Moore’s Staten Island rival.
“We kind of get a little leeway now being the third seed,” Wolf said. “This was a huge game.”
CHSAA SECOND ROUND
No. 9 St. Francis Prep 7, No. 16 Monsignor McClancy 1: Taso Stathopoulos gave up just one run on four hits with six strikeouts over six innings to lead St. Francis (12-6), which meets No. 8 All Hallows in a third-round, best-of-three series beginning with a doubleheader Monday at Fordham University starting at 10 a.m. Bobby Perretti had two RBIs and two hits, Danny Pellegrino added an RBI double in the first and Aaron Acosta had a sacrifice fly. McClancy finishes 7-12.
