Baseball: St Rita rallies past St Laurence

Updated: May 18, 2012 11:34PM

St. Rita came from behind in a marathon seven-inning game to top St. Laurence 6-5 at Silver Cross Field in Joliet. The contest was a semifinal game in the Steven Bajenski tournament.

Rita was one out away from victory when a near brawl broke out with both benches clearing in front of the St. Laurence dugout. Vikings designated hitter Zach Lewis hit a popup to Rita first baseman Rick Faron. On the way to the bag, Lewis bumped Faron who took exception to the contact and went after Lewis.

‘‘Rick just got out of the hospital with a dislocated shoulder,’’ Rita coach Mike Zunica said. ‘‘It was a cheap shot.’’

‘‘After Mike Kornacker’s home run, they threw three straight pitches at Zach,’’ St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus said. ‘‘Zach and (Scott Thomas) were talking at each other all game. Zach was wrong but both teams were at fault.’’

The near brawl took away from Chad Prieto’s game tying single to left field in the seventh inning. Prieto came around to score the game winner on an errant throw. He had two RBI for the game.

‘‘Prieto’s been getting big hits for us all year,’’ Zunica said. ‘‘He is a clutch player and that’s why he’s in the lineup.’’

Laurence (28-5-1) led at one point 5-1. The Vikings got two monster home-runs to left field off the bat of Kornacker and Kevin Smith. Kornacker’s was two-run shot and Smith hit a solo one.

Nick Altobella (3-1) was cruising through five innings of work when he ran into trouble in the sixth. The Mustangs put three runs up to close the score to 5-4.

Stefane Belmonte started the inning with a base-hot to center. The senior, third-baseman collected three hits and scored three runs including the game-tying run in the seventh inning.

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