Sean Hagan told me he spoke to Matt McGovern earlier this week and McGovern told him not to worry about Saturday.

“You go four innings and I’ll take care of the rest,” McGovern told Hagan. “I’m never going to pitch another day in my life. I’ll pitch forever.”

I’m paraphrasing here, but that’ll give you an idea of where McGovern stood on pitching today. Little did he or Mamaroneck know it would need him to pitch in relief of Andrew Benkwitt in this marathon of a state semifinal, but it did and he did. He has never been better.

McGovern threw seven innings of three-hit relief. He was perfect through the first 4.1 innings of that stretch, and only once did a runner advance past first base against him.

Catcher Mike Rosenfeld told me afterward that McGovern began to tire in his second inning of relief. Imagine how he felt in the seventh?

As much as a few brilliant defensive plays and the clutchest of clutch singles by Rosenfeld delivered the Tigers to the final later today, it was McGovern who was the hero. Rosenfeld told me Mamaroneck simply had to win it for him.

“I really wanted to be put in this spot,” said Rosenfeld, who was intentionally walked along with McGovern to load the bases for Hagan in the ninth. “I had to capitalize. I wanted to win this game so bad for Matt. He was leaving his heart out on the field. You have to win it for a warrior like that.”

Rosenfeld hit a sinking liner to left field on a 1-0 fastball. Gabe Klein, who hit a leadoff single in the 11th after going 0 for 5, scored the winning run. Mamaroneck piled on Klein at home and then met Rosenfeld at first to continue the celebration.

No, their pitching situation is not great, but the Tigers will go into the state final on some jolt of adrenaline.

“Absolutely,” Rosenfeld said. “Matt said he was out of steam in the second inning he was pitching. He’ll go out and throw the next seven innings if we want him to in the championship game. We’re all just running on adrenaline. It’s ridiculous.”

I talked to Mike Chiapparelli after the game as well. He said he’s not sure whether or not Hagan will start the final. Hagan is fine, he said, “but I want to watch these teams play first. He has a long career ahead of him and I don’t want anything to happen to him to jeopardize that.”

Sounds like Chiapparelli will wait and see. I bet Hagan will pitch at some point, but I think the determination is whether or not he starts. They would probably go with Eric Windsor if Hagan doesn’t start. I also spoke to Andrew Benkwitt, who didn’t throw many pitches and seemed eager to pitch in relief this afternoon.

I also asked Chiapparelli about the various chances his club wasted late. Mamaroneck had 18 runners reach base without scoring. It had a runner caught stealing in the eighth and a runner caught at third on a failed squeeze in the 10th. They also sac bunted twice only to strand runners in scoring position.

“I tried to play everything by the book,” he said, “but I decided to stop at the end and just let them hit.”

I also asked him about sending Taylor Mondshein for the inside-the-park home run in the ninth after his one-out triple. Chiapparelli said the sole reason he held Mondshein is because eh thought he would’ve been thrown out. I was wrong when I said it was because Mamaroneck had the meat of its order up.

Anyway, we’ll have two or three more hours before the final. It’s time to go grab a bite to eat. Log on later to find out A) who is starting and B) when the game will start. Until then, just know that you missed probably the best high school baseball game I’ve ever seen. Every single Mamaroneck parent said that exact thing. Just incredible.