Crusaders eliminated by New Trier; fail to place 3rd

The Brother Rice Crusaders baseball team saw their dreams of their first IHSA AA state title since 1976 come to an end Saturday morning with a 7-2 loss to the Trevians of New Trier Township at Silver Cross Field in Joliet. The team failed to win the third place game later in the day, falling to Washington High School, 10-6.

"Our scouting report said that we could not let New Trier take advantage of our mistakes, and hats off to them because that's exactly what they did...You cannot give that team an inch and we just gave them too many inches today," replied Head Coach Tim Lyons following the first game.

Things got off to a positive note for Brother Rice as sophomore pitcher Patrick Gannon, who had earned the save the day before held the Treviand scoreless in their half of the first inning. Kicking off the bottom of the inning was a triple by junior second baseman Mike McQuillan. McQuillan scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman standout Kevin Koziol, giving the Crusaders their only lead of the day at 1-0.

McQuillan crosses the plate, giving the Crusaders an early 1-0 lead.

Gannon was impressive yet again in the top of the second as he did not allow a run to cross the plate despite New Trier having runners on second and third place. His strikeout of T.J. O'Donnell ended another positive frame for the Crusaders.

The third inning was not as bright for Gannon and the Crusaders as they allowed five rund to cross the plate before switching pitchers and bringing in senior Jack Carmody, one of only two seniors on the roster. A single by New Trier's Chris Lashmet (committed to Northwestern) drove in the tying run as senior Mac Murphy scored. A bunt executed by shortstop Ben Gardner gave the Trevians the lead for good as outfielder Sam Franklin scored. With only one out, a double from junior Will Neal scored two more runners. Neal then scored on a double from outfielder Danny Pritz, capping the innings scoring with five runs. The Trevians sent all nine batters to the plate in the inning.

Gannon tries to get out of a tough inning.

Brother Rice could not answer in the bottom of the frame, even though they had two runners on base. A flyout from junior Doug Schumacher ended that scoring opportunity.

New Trier added to their lead in the top of the fifth as junior first baseman Dillon Napoleon scored on a single from Murphy. With junior Sean O'Reilly replacing Carmody, the Trevians scored their final run of the game on a fielder's choice RBI from Lashmet.

The Crusaders' best chance to mount a rally came in the bottom of the fifth inning. A Koziol double scored catcher Ricky Palmer, who led the inning off with a single. At this point, the team trailed 7-2, but had runners on second and third with nobody out. However, a baserunning error caused junior Cameron Anello to ground into a 5-3-2 double play. A flyout from leftfielder Ryan Wischhover ended the disappointing inning with only one run being scored. Schumacher reached base on a leadoff walk in the sixth, but was unable to score. No team crossed the plate in the seventh as the final score was New Trier 7, Brother Rice 2.

"The one time we get an offensive inning going, unfortunately we made an error. That's baseball and we are better baseball players and better men from this Tournament," quipped Lyons.

The usually potent Crusader offense was held to two runs because of a quality outing from New Trier's Trey Frahler. Frahler pitched all seven innings for the Trevians, sriking out six batters.

"He was getting his fast ball over and mixing up speeds," replied Koziol.

The team fell later in the day to Washington High School in the third place game. New Trier fell to Nequa Valley of Naperville in the Championship. The Crusaders had a 6-2 lead against Washington after the fourth inning, but allowed eight unanswered Panther rund to take the loss.

"We will be back next year. It will be a fun summer playing summer ball this year with these guys," said McQuillan.

The Washington game meant the end of a high school career for both seniors Jack Carmody (P) and Bob Dempster (OF).

"I'm really proud of Jack Carmody and Bobby Dempster. I really wanted this one for them, they are great kids. Jack came in and locked them down and gave us a chance to stay in the ballgame against New Trier. So many people call us the young kids, but we were led by two outstanding citizens and it is going to be tough to see them go," commented Lyons.

With such a young team, though, there is no reason not to believe the Crusaders will be back in the IHSA AA playoffs next year. As Coach Lyons put it,"We had our taste this year, and next year we want the full course dinner."

Ricky Palmer safe at first.