Baseball: Jerry Houston, Sam Kint lead Mount Carmel past St Rita
Updated: June 1, 2012 9:45PM
Star players step up in big games.
That’s precisely what Mount Carmel’s Jerry Houston and Sam Kint did Friday against St. Rita.
Houston and Kint came through with two-run hits during a four-run second inning that ignited the Caravan to an 8-5 victory over the Mustangs in a Mount Carmel Sectional semifinal.
The No. 2-seeded Caravan (32-5) advanced to play No. 5 Lyons at 11 a.m. Saturday for the sectional championship. St. Rita, the No. 3 seed, closes at 24-13.
“Those guys from the top of down of our lineup came through for us and do a good job,” Mount Carmel coach Brian Hurry said. “That was a big inning for us.”
Houston’s double off St. Rita starter Mike Costanzo scored Josh Gaal and Jason Gasser, both of whom had walked, to give the Caravan a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second.
Kint, the Caravan’s cleanup hitter, came through later in the inning with a single that scored Houston and T.J. Laurisch, who had singled, to stretch the lead to 5-2.
“I was just looking at the pitch and it was in the strike zone, and it just dropped,” said Houston of the pitch he roped for a two-bagger. “I was just defending the plate.”
St. Rita crawled back against Caravan starter Jeremy Kravetz, who went five innings and allowed five runs on eight hits while striking out two.
Rick Faron, who launched a mammoth solo homer over the scoreboard in left field in the second, added an RBI single in the third to cut the gap to 5-3.
The Caravan got that run back in its half of the third on an RBI double off the right-center field fence by Gasser to make it 6-3.
The Mustangs looked to have cut the lead to 6-4 in the fourth when Anthony Ray scored on a Caravan error. However, Ray was ruled out on an appeal after he failed to touch third base on his way home.
“I was watching the ball, not the bag,” St. Rita coach Mike Zunica said. “I have to take the umpire’s word there.”
It turned out to be a crucial miscue after Faron crushed a 1-and-0 offering just to the right of the scoreboard in the fifth to cut the gap to 6-5. Stefano Belmonte singled and scored on Faron’s blast.
Mount Carmel tacked on single runs in the fifth and six on an RBI single by Laurisch and a St. Rita error.
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