Rice's power surge enough to beat H-F

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Pat Wilkison thought his work was done Wednesday afternoon, but his coach had other ideas.

So with Homewood-Flossmoor threatening to complete a comeback of epic proportions, Brother Rice coach Tim Lyons asked Wilkison for a little more.

Six batters after he left the mound, Wilkison came back to get two more outs. Rice survived another scare in the seventh inning before finally nailing down a 13-11 win in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Richards Regional semifinals.

"Yeah, I was actually on the bench," said Wilkison, who allowed eight hits and seven runs (six earned) in his two pitching stints. "I didn't really know what was going on. ... I felt a little better the second time, actually."

And Lyons felt better having a veteran throwing on a day when fly balls were leaving Richards' park on a regular basis. Rice (26-3) slugged five home runs, while H-F (9-2) had three, including a pair by Nick Norris.

The wind was not a pitcher's best friend, but that wasn't anything unusual, according to Wilkison.

"Yeah, it's always blowing out here for some reason," he said. "Our hitters were able to capitalize and I just fought through it."

That's what pleased Lyons.

"Pat was really our inspiration today," Lyons said. "Coming back in and getting those two big outs, I thought, was critical."

Rice, which plays St. Rita at 1 p.m. Thursday in the regional final, fell behind 2-0 after a half-inning on Wednesday. But the Crusaders soon took advantage of the favorable conditions and H-F starter Aaron Hauge's wildness.

Hauge walked six and gave up seven hits in 2 2/3 innings.

"He's at the end of a [year] where he pitched a lot of innings spring and summer," H-F coach Todd Sippel said. "He's just a little tired out at this point. But he battled all he could."

Rice took a 5-2 lead after one inning, getting a three-run homer from Kevin Callahan and a two-run shot from Kevin Koehler in the first.

Ricky Palmer hit a solo shot in the second and Kevin Koziol added a three-run homer in the third as the lead grew to 11-3. TJ Bujanski's two-run homer in the fourth made it 13-5, but H-F wouldn't go away.

"With the wind blowing out the way it is today, it's definitely a hitters' day and not a pitchers' day," Lyons said. "They kept coming at us. That's a credit to them and their program."

"Early on, we ... said, [if we] hold them under 10, I think we're going to win this game because we know what our hitting is capable of doing," Sippel said.

Norris led off the sixth with a solo homer and by the time Wilkison had got the third out, it was 13-10. Norris repeated the feat to open the seventh, pulling H-F within two runs. The Vikes put the tying runs in scoring position before reliever Brian Baldwin finally nailed down the win. 

"We put ourselves in a position to play another great team," Lyons said. "We're in the position. That's all we can ask for."

mclark@chicagosuntimes.com