CHSAA BASEBALL
Xaverian 3
Farrell 2
Joey Menendez didn’t stride to the plate with the utmost confidence in the seventh inning yesterday.
“I was kind of scared,” the senior Xaverian shortstop said. “I was 0-for-3 and had made two errors that could have cost us the game. I thought, ‘This can’t be happening.’ I didn’t want to be the one who lost it for us.”
He wasn’t. Menendez laid down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt with the bases loaded to score Jon Fontanet and give Xaverian a 3-2 win over Monsignor Farrell to capture the CHSAA title at KeySpan Park.
Menendez’s bunt was the final part to the Clippers’ three-run rally to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the final inning.
Farrell’s Tom Visciano shut down the Clippers for six innings and allowed just four hits. But he began the seventh by surrendering two straight doubles and eventually walked T.J. Greig with the bases loaded to force in the tying run.
Menendez took care of the rest. Xaverian head coach Dennis Canale called him to third base before he got to the plate and told him to bunt on the second pitch.
“I knew we had to do something different to win this game,” said Canale, who guided the Clippers to their first championship in three years and fourth in the last eight.
Menendez made it work. Despite being thrown a high inside pitch, he bunted perfectly. Farrell third baseman Steve Hemmes charged, but was unable to get control of the ball and Fontanet scored easily.
“As soon as I saw him make contact, I knew it was over,” Fontanet said.
The rally made a winner out of Keith Christensen, who struck out 10 but appeared to be headed for a loss when he left the mound after the top of the seventh.
“I was still confident we would come back,” said Christensen, who will pitch at Arizona State next year. “I went down the tunnel in the dugout and said a little prayer.”
The Clippers avoided having to face Farrell again today in the double-elimination tournament, but Visciano nearly made it happen.
After the loss, Farrell head coach Bob Mulligan said he thought Visciano deserved to try to finish the game, and the pitcher insisted he felt fine.
“I felt strong,” Visciano said. “They’re really good and I held them down as long as they could.”
Although Menendez didn’t become the hero in the most glamorous of ways, that suited him just fine.
“A bunt single is just as good as a home run when it wins a game,” Menendez said. “All that matters is we won.”
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The CHSAA B championship between Salesian and All Hallows will be played today at St. John’s at 1:30 with the Senior Classic to follow.