Prep Baseball Report

No. 6 Brother Rice Jumps Out Early, Knocks off Manteno


Peter Hamot
Area Scout

No. 6 Brother Rice and undefeated Manteno squared off on Wednesday for a non-conference match-up. A couple of big innings for Brother Rice proved to be the difference as they handed Manteno their first loss of the season by the score of 9-4. 

Brother Rice (14-4) jumped ahead early with four runs in the first and broke the game open for good with three more runs in the bottom of the fourth, to make it 9-0 at the time. To start the bottom of the fourth Jack Lausch launched a homerun to right-centerfield to put the Crusaders up 7-0 at the time. Zion Rose would come up next and draw a walk. Rose went on to steal second to set up Will Flanigan; who doubled to right-field which scored Rose and made it 8-0. Nick Daugherty proceeded to knock in Flanigan on a single to right field which capped off the three-run frame and made it 9-0 going to the fifth. 

Manteno (12-1) would fight back in the top of the sixth inning. Grant DeRose delivered a one-out single to score senior Edan Perez who started the rally with a single of his own earlier in the frame. Nathan Bajic followed up with an RBI single to right-field to make it 9-2. Luke Trepanier was responsible for the final two runs of the frame. His RBI fielder's choice scored the third run and he later came around to score on a passed ball to cut the Brother Rice lead to 9-4 at the time. That is all the offense Manteno could muster, however.

Brother Rice was led on the mound by sophomore Cole Van Assen. The Crusaders hurler earned the win going 4 shutout innings while striking out 4. Van Assen featured a fastball that sat 83-85 mph with sink and feel for the corners of the zone. Curveball was his go-to secondary pitch this game, featuring tight spin and slurve-type action at 72-74 mph, which he would throw in any count. 

Brother Rice jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning. The first three batters of the game; Jack Lausch, Rose and Flanigan all reached base safely for the Crusaders to bring up junior Nick Daugherty. Daugherty worked a bases loaded walk to bring in Lausch for the first run of the game. Luke Lawrence delivered a sacrifice fly scoring Rose and Flanigan eventually scored on a passed ball to make it 3-0. A second sacrifice fly of the inning, this time by sophomore Purdue commit Amir Gray, was the final tally of the inning, making it 4-0 heading to the second. 

Brother Rice tacked on another run in the second inning to push the lead to 5-0. Rose smoked a double to left-field scoring Lausch, who reached via a walk earlier in the inning.

Manteno brought junior Audis Edwards out of the pen with 1 out and a runner on-base in the fourth inning. Edwards would go on to shut down the potent Crusaders offense for the remaining 2.2 innings of the game while not allowing a run and striking out 1. Edwards threw 43 pitches, all of them fastballs. 

Notable Performances: 

Jack Lausch (Brother Rice): 1-2, HR, RBI, 2 SB’s, 3 R, BB
Zion Rose (Brother Rice): 2-3, 2B, 2 SB’s, RBI, 2 R
Will Flanigan (Brother Rice): 2-3, 2B, RBI, 2 R
Cole Jackson (Manteno): 2-4, 2B, RBI
Edan Perez (Manteno): 3-4, 2B
Nick Daugherty (Brother Rice): 1-2, 2 RBIs

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