Crusaders lucky and good vs. St. Rita

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Strange things keep happening to Brother Rice at Richards' baseball field.

Strange in a good way, that is.

First came the walkoff grand slam TJ Bujanski hit last month to beat Glenbard North in a tournament hosted by the Bulldogs.

Then on Thursday afternoon, Tom Rynne dropped a bunt down the third-base line that started foul before veering back into fair territory, allowing Bujanski to score.

"Are things going our way? I think they are right now," Rice coach Tim Lyons said. "I'm going to Ireland in two weeks, so I think I'm getting a little of my heritage luck on my side somehow."

Whatever mojo the Crusaders have working, they're hoping it won't stop for one more week. They beat South Side rival St. Rita 10-2 Thursday to win the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Richards Regional and advance to the summer state tourney for the first time since 2001.

The Crusaders (27-3) open pool play Monday at 2 p.m. at North Central College against the Carmel Regional champ.

Until then, they can savor this win, which didn't get lopsided till Rice dropped six runs on the Mustangs (17-4) in the bottom of the sixth.

"Baseball works in funny ways," Lyons said. "When it looks like it's going to be a 3-2, 10-inning game, all of a sudden we open it up."

Winning pitcher Kevin Koziol was as surprised as anyone by the sea change.

"I thought Rita was playing hard the whole game," the rising junior said. "That last inning, they had a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes you never see them make. ... I really didn't know what happened to them."

It started out the opposite, with Rice falling behind 2-0 on an unearned run in the second (due to Koziol's throwing error) and losing pitcher Joey Filomeno's RBI single in the third.

"I was struggling a little bit in the beginning," Koziol said. "I think I lost my temper, but I got over it."

That was partly due to some exceptional defense. Rynne ranged far to track down Anthony Andres' shot to deep left-center with two on and one out in the third, and shortstop Bobby Schuch gobbled up everything hit in his vicinity.

Meanwhile, Rice's offense was coming to life. Brian Baldwin's two-run single -- one batter after Andres dropped Koziol's fly ball -- tied it in the bottom of the third.

The Crusders went ahead in the fifth on Kevin Koehler's RBI double and added another run on Rynne's seeing-eye bunt.

Then Rice busted the game open in the sixth, scoring  half-dozen times. Ricky Palmer led off with a homer, Koziol had an RBI single, Dan Walsh squeezed home a run and two more runners scored on wild pitches.

That was more than enough of a cushion for Koziol, who finished with a five-hitter and three strikeouts.

"I knew it was going to be an uphill battle," said St. Rita coach Mike Zunica, who didn't have the lineup he would have liked.

Missing were Angelo Burrage, who was out of town with an all-star team, and Shane Conlon, still sidelined after fouling a ball off his foot. Mark Payton, meanwhile, could only play defense and was unable to hit because of a severely bruised bone in his hand.

Still, Zunica said, "I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. I'm happy with our summer and I thought we battled. What can you do?"

mclark@chicagosuntimes.com