The St. Joseph-by-the-Sea Vikings will square off against the Moore Catholic Mavericks at 4:15 p.m. on Monday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Moore Catholic will challenge a team with plenty of momentum: St. Joseph-by-the-Sea extended their winning streak to 14 on Friday. The Vikings' pitcher stepped up to hand Monsignor Farrell a 6-0 shutout. Give the Vikings' pitching crew some credit: that's the team's fourth straight shutout.
Not much got past Anthony Garofalo, who gave up just a hit to keep Monsignor Farrell off the board. Garofalo has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than one earned run any time he's pitched this season.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Randy Rivera, who went a perfect 1-for-1 with two RBI, one run, and one double. Those two RBI gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Paul Cilmi, who went 1-for-3 with two runs.
St. Joseph-by-the-Sea hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. The team has now struck out at least five batters in five consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Moore Catholic got the win against Regis on Saturday by a conclusive 11-2.
NICHOLAS NEVILLE looked comfortable as he pitched four innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits.
At the plate, BRIAN BADALAMENTI was excellent, going 2-for-3 with three RBI and one double. The team also got some help courtesy of CHRISTOPHER EUGENE, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run.
St. Joseph-by-the-Sea's win was their ninth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 21-1. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.3 runs on average over those games. As for Moore Catholic, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 16-7-1 record this season.
St. Joseph-by-the-Sea took their win against Moore Catholic in their previous meeting back in May of 2023 by a conclusive 8-2 score. Do the Vikings have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Mavericks turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
