Baseball: St Rita’s big inning beats Oak Lawn

Updated: May 17, 2012 10:44PM

No. 13 St. Rita made it a clean sweep for the Catholic League Blue teams playing in the first Steven Bajenski Tournament at Silver Cross Field in Joliet on Thursday.

The Mustangs batted around in the third inning and put seven runs on the board en route to a 10-6 victory over Oak Lawn.

The game was the second game of a doubleheader that saw St. Laurence win in the first game. The Mustangs will take on the Vikings in a semifinal match on Friday. The two teams split their season series. Providence and Mt. Carmel also won their first-round games.

“I think high school baseball has leveled out,’’ Mustangs coach Mike Zunica said. “The BBCOR bat has brought more parity to the game. The league could’ve just as easily gone 0-for-4 today, too.’’

In the third, the Mustangs (20-11) strung together five straight hits with one out. Rick Faron roped a two-run single to center and Stefano Belmonte followed that with a two-run blast over the left fielder’s head. Mike Zunica and Zach Soria also picked up an RBI in the inning.

“He had me down one and two in the count and I changed my approach,’’ Faron said. “Instead of pulling the ball, I took a change-up and went to right field with it.’’

“We haven’t swung the bats like that all year,’’ Zunica said. “It was nice to see. Stef and Rick both had nice hits.’’

The game saw a combined seven errors. Mike Costanzo improved to 6-2 while giving up two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. The sophomore struggled with seven walks but kept his team in the lead from the third inning forward.

Nick Mozwecz went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Spartans (20-12).

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