St. Rita finishes off Waubonsie

Four outs shy of the state title game of the IHSBCA Phil Lawler Summer Classic, Waubonsie Valley's baseball team couldn't finish the dream.

St. Rita rallied for a 6-5 win over the Warriors in Wednesday's tournament semifinals at Naperville's North Central College. The Mustangs will play Sandburg in the title game, which will be at 7:30 p.m. today at Lisle's Benedictine University.

"The key word is going to be 'finish,'" Warriors coach Dan Fezzuoglio said as he looked ahead to next spring. "Finish games. We can't be satisfied because we know teams are going to come after us now."

For the Warriors (30-16), it's their second straight summer semifinal loss. Unlike last year's 8-0 defeat, though, Waubonsie Valley had Wednesday's game in hand after taking a 5-1 lead in the fourth inning.

St. Rita (18-2) chipped away with 2 runs in the bottom of the fourth and then struck for 3 runs in the sixth. Kyle Stearns' RBI single tied it and an error gave the Mustangs a 6-5 lead.

Mark Payton capped two scoreless innings of relief in the seventh, stranding runners on first and second base to send St. Rita into the title game.

"We had a great season, it reminded me of last year," said Warriors senior Kris Singh. "It was a tough loss, but we've played some great games this summer. We worked together and we became a team."

Trailing 1-0 after a second-inning St. Rita run, Waubonsie Valley struck for 3 third-inning runs on an RBI single by Sam Carius and a 2-run single by Singh. The lead grew to 5-1 in the fourth inning when Harry Vickers singled home 2 runs.

A 2-run single by St. Rita's Sean Kalisz narrowed the gap to 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth.

"This team can hit with anybody in the state, I believe," Payton said. "If we were down 5-0 and had two innings, we could score three apiece. Our team, this offense, is like lightning."

Waubonsie Valley, which committed no errors in two games on Tuesday, committed 2 errors against St. Rita in the pivotal sixth inning. The Mustangs took advantage of both, and now look to repeat the summer state title they won in 2005.

"I'm pumped, it's going to be a good game," said Mustangs third baseman Stefano Belmonte. "Hopefully we're going to come out on top."