Inspired Flaherty leading Mt. Lebo
Deirdre Flaherty and her father, Mark, used to do everything together.
The sports-obsessed father and daughter loved to play golf, go skiing and take long car rides together while traveling to different games and tournaments. When Mark ran for office, Flaherty would be right by his side on election night, win or lose, always holding her father’s hand while walking around his campaign headquarters and smiling for the cameras.
But through all of their years together, nothing brought them closer together than their shared love of softball.
Mark Patrick Flaherty was a standout athlete who excelled in baseball, soccer and wrestling at Mt. Lebanon High School in the late 1970s before playing Division I baseball at Duke. A prominent lawyer and politician who served two terms as Allegheny County Controller, he remained active as an adult and also coached his daughter and her friends in youth softball and soccer until high school. He then became an “unofficial” member of Mt. Lebanon softball coach Casey Phillips’ staff once his daughter began her varsity career.
“Most coaches don’t employ parents, for obvious reasons. It’s kind of a conflict of interest,” Phillips said. “But Mark was all business all the time. Not only a guy I really grew to like and admire as a coach, but a guy I really grew to trust, because he was a great resource to our program.”
He watched as his daughter exploded onto the scene last year in her first year of high school softball, as she led all WPIAL players with 12 home runs while batting .650 with 37 RBIs. Flaherty was the only sophomore selected to last year’s Post-Gazette All-Area team, and with two years of high school ball remaining, she appeared destined to lead the Blue Devils toward a potential championship run with her father by her side.
Then, just before Christmas, he went into the hospital to be treated for COVID-19. Doctors told Flaherty and her mother, Anne, that Mark should be back home in a few days. Little did they know, he would never make it home again.
On Jan. 3, Flaherty said goodbye to her father for the last time before he died in his hospital bed from complications related to COVID-19. Just like that, her rock, her coach, her mentor and her best friend — the biggest influence in her life — was gone.
“Anything I wanted to do, he would full on support me in anything,” Flaherty said. “He would have never wanted me to stop doing anything. That never really crossed my mind. I just keep doing it for him.”
Still, how could anyone expect a 16-year-old girl burdened with the grief and sorrow caused by such a tragic loss to go out a few months later and perform like one of the best softball players in the state? Surely there was no way Flaherty could live up to her 2021 level of play under those circumstances — let alone exceed it, right? Not so fast.
Turns out, simply matching her jaw-dropping numbers from her sophomore season wasn’t good enough for Flaherty. Instead, the junior catcher now finds herself in the midst of one of the most prolific stretches of play by any softball player in WPIAL history — all while honoring the legacy of the man who taught her how to play the game she loves.
“She’s the best power hitter I’ve ever seen or I’ve ever coached. It’s insane,” Phillips said. “The last week has just been unbelievable, but even at the beginning of the year when she wasn’t hitting the home runs, she was still driving in runs, getting on base, extra base hits. I think she has one strikeout on the year. … She’s been getting the job done.”
In a six-game span from April 25-May 5, Flaherty batted .857 with 2 doubles, 8 home runs, 16 RBIs, 8 runs scored and 7 walks. Her slugging percentage during that time? An absurd 2.714. And her OPS was an astronomical 3.619. For the season, Flaherty entered the week batting .579 with 5 doubles, 9 home runs, 26 RBIs and a 1.421 slugging percentage in 13 games.
It’s no surprise, then, that Mt. Lebanon won all six of those games during that stretch. The Class 6A No. 3 Blue Devils (11-4, 7-1) entered the week riding a nine-game winning streak, fresh off clinching a section title with a thrilling 9-8 win May 5 at Canon-McMillan. Flaherty went 2 for 2 with a pair of home runs and a pair of walks in that win vs. the Big Macs.
“The biggest stage is where she tends to have her biggest games,” Phillips said. “She’s very mature beyond her years. I think the things she has done this year more than ever have been a tribute and homage to Mark. They were best friends.”
Since the beginning of the season, Mt. Lebanon has played with a shamrock patch on its jerseys with an insignia featuring the initials “M.F.,” in honor of Mark Flaherty. And although the team started out only 2-3, it appears the Blue Devils have had the “Luck of the Irish” on their side during their nine-game win streak, which includes five wins by three runs or less and a trio of one-run wins.
“We talked to them [before the season], and it was really more like, ‘Go out and play the way that coach [Flaherty] taught you to play. And don’t forget about why you started playing in the first place,’” Phillips said. “It wasn’t about your batting average. It wasn’t about a college scholarship. It was about going out with your friends and enjoying your time on the field. I think that was important for them to hear. I think it was a message that resonated with them.”
No matter what happens the rest of this year or in the rest of Flaherty’s career, there’s no doubt she made her father proud while he was still here. And with him possibly pulling a few strings from up above,Mt. Lebanon might just get the extra push it needs to go all the way and win a WPIAL championship.
“I don’t see it as a negative that he’s not there,” Flaherty said. “Now he’ll never be able to miss a game. He has the best seat in the house and he’ll always be watching.”