Brendan McCann shuts down St. Anthony's to boost Kellenberg in baseball win
Kellenberg pitcher Brendan McCann throws during a CHSAA baseball game against St.Anthony’s on Tuesday in East Meadow. Credit: Pablo Garcia Corradi/Pablo Garcia Corradi
Kellenberg looked like it might be a big disappointment this baseball season only five weeks ago. After reaching the 2021 CHSAA championship series it opened the season by losing three of its first four. However, glimpsing themselves at the bottom of the standings has stirred something in the Firebirds.
“We were second-to-last and that didn’t feel good for any of us,” leftfielder Steven Hardiman said. “It lit something in us to get going. We came in with expectations for ourselves and being there wasn’t it.”
Kellenberg has been on the rise ever since and its ascent continued on Tuesday with an 8-1 victory over St. Anthony’s at the East Meadow Baseball compound in a two-game series that could go far in determining whether either of these two (or possibly Holy Trinity) earns one of the two byes into the semifinal round of the CHSAA playoffs.
Southpaw Brendan McCann pitched six innings of one-run ball and Hardiman and Andrew Koshy each drove in a pair of runs to lead the Firebirds (12-4, 11-4). Teddy Valentino had a sacrifice fly that gave the Friars (11-7, 10-4) a 1-0 lead in the first inning but they stranded three runners in scoring position the rest of the way.
“[The semifinal bye] got us to the championship last year and we saw how it helped,” Kellenberg coach Pat Miles said. “It gives you an opportunity to have a leg up. You are at full strength and you’re facing a team that had to use its top pitcher to reach that round. It can be a game-changer.”
All season, Kellenberg used Koshy as its No. 1 pitcher and McCann as its No. 2, but Miles flipped them for the two games with the Friars. McCann has pitched with greater and greater confidence this season and the move allowed the Firebirds to play Koshy at third base instead of DH in the game he doesn’t pitch. Miles said the biggest factor “was the confidence we have in [McCann] and the way he pitches with a chip on his shoulder.”
McCann allowed the first-inning run on a pair of hits and the sacrifice fly. Kellenberg scored three runs on Ryan Wasserman's run-scoring double and a two-run single by Hardiman and it changed everything about how McCann pitched the Friars.
He got aggressive in the strike zone with his fastball and deceptive curve. He retired 10 of the last 11 St. Anthony’s hitters he faced. He is 5-1 in six starts this season.
“I feel like I am one of the underrated players on Long Island,” McCann said. “I haven’t gotten the hype that a lot of players have. I want people to know my name and I am having fun doing it.”
The cornerstones of Kellenberg’s rise have been pitching – the team ERA was 1.42 entering Tuesday’s game – and excellent defense. Against the Friars there was offense, too, as eight of nine starters had hits and six players drove in runs.
The Firebirds scored five runs in the third with Koshy’s two-run single the big blow. Vincent Napolitano, Paul Napolitano and John Kwiatkowski also drove in runs in the rally.
“Pitching and defense have us here,” Miles said, “but having the offense in this game really made a difference.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
