By BRETT CYRGALIS
May 30, 2008
Walking off the field yesterday, the 11 seniors on Moore Catholic's varsity baseball team were all smiles as they boarded a limo about to whisk them off to their prom.
And they had a ton to smile about. They had defeated St. Raymond's, 15-4, in the second round of the CHSAA playoffs at Jack Kaiser Stadium on the campus of St. John's University. It put Moore up 1-0 in the best-of-3 series, the next game taking place on Sunday, three days after their prom.
"They're excited, but right now they're focused on the game," Moore head coach Nick Doscher said beforehand. "Let's just win and then they can worry about celebrating later."
The focus might not have been all there when Moore senior starter Mike Carletti and gave up two runs, one unearned, in the first inning to an aggressive swinging St. Raymond's team.
But the Moore bats picked him up, scoring six in the bottom of the first with two RBIs apiece from seniors Joe Harten and Mike Wolf.
"We've been pitching and defense all year," Doscher said afterward. "[Recently] our pitching hasn't been what it's been all year, but I like the way we're swinging the bats."
Doscher called Carletti his second starter, but after the 6-foot-2 right-hander held St. Raymond's to four total runs (two unearned) on 60 pitches in four innings, the possibility of him taking the mound on Sunday is likely.
Part of the reason Carletti didn't have to go out for the fifth inning was because the Moore offense had another explosion in the fourth, this time for seven runs. With the bases loaded, Harten came to plate and ripped a double to right field that added three more to his game-high five RBIs.
After the inning it was 14-4 and the idling limo was louder than any cheering fans.
"We knew once the regular season ended, every game we win, the next game is going to be bigger than the one before," Doscher said. "We can now go into Sunday with a lot of confidence."
