4A St. Laurence Sectional: St. Laurence Walks Off Brother Rice
June 3, 2017
By Matt Huck
Area Scout
BURBANK, IL – Back to back seasons now Brother Rice and St. Laurence met for the Sectional Championship. St. Laurence again came away with the victory, 2-1 on Saturday in front of a full house at St. Laurence.
With the game tied heading to the bottom of the seventh it seemed destined for extra innings. Jack Guzek came in relief of Brother Rice starter Shane Gorman in the sixth and worked a perfect inning running his fastball up to 91 mph. He struck out the first hitter of the seventh before giving up back-to-back singles to Brian Lyle and Tommy Farrell. After a fly out, Matt McCormick came to the plate. McCormick, who tripled, doubled, and was hit by a pitch in his previous at bats, drove an 0-1 offering into the left centerfield gap for the walk off single. Video can be found below.
IL: @stlbaseball1 walks off @BR_Baseball 2-1. McCormick hits walk off single pic.twitter.com/XVELJCSfvC
— PBR Illinois (@PBRIllinois) June 3, 2017
The teams traded runs in the fifth inning. Brother Rice loaded the bases off Laurence starter Jimmy Burnette, and Jack Guzek came through with an RBI single over a diving second baseman. After the hit Laurence went to the pen for Angel Sandoval. Sandoval faced a tough task with the bases loaded, nobody out, and three hole hitter Ryan Kutt at the plate. Sandoval locked in and got Kutt to pop out on the infield. After the pop out, Sandoval induced an inning ending double play off the bat of Andy Lopez.
Sandoval earned the win working three hitless innings of relief, allowing just a walk to Ryan King.
St. Laurence answered back with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the fifth. John Peterson worked a walk and came around to score on a line drive double from McCormick.
McCormick finished the day 3-3 with a single, double, triple, and two RBIs.
Gorman picked up the no decision for Rice working five innings allowing just three hits and one run. Ryan King went 2-2 with two walks and a stolen base at the plate for Brother Rice.
St. Laurence advances to the Crestwood Super Sectional and take on No. 1 ranked Neuqua Valley at 7:30 PM Monday at Standard Bank Stadium. Brother Rice concludes its season with a 29-10 record.