Upstart Andrew bolts past Crusaders

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The IHSA baseball playoffs undoubtedly will produce some upsets by teams on the road to state glory the next two weeks.

None, however, is likely to match what occurred in a shell-shocked Mount Greenwood community Saturday.

It wasn’t so much that No. 8 seed Andrew upended No. 1 seed Brother Rice, but how the Thunderbolts did it: total domination.

Pitcher Brett Maus was overpowering, the offense pounded out 17 hits and the defense was flawless during Andrew’s 12-0 shellacking of the third-ranked Crusaders in the Class 4A Brother Rice Regional championship game.

“You look at our record (17-15) coming in, and it doesn’t look like we’re a great team,” Andrew coach Dave DeHaan said. “But when we’re on, we can be a very, very good team.”

The final words DeHaan said to his players before jogging to the third-base coach’s box in the top of the first inning were, “Let’s have fun.”

Boy, did they ever.

Andrew scored five runs in the first inning against Brother Rice starter Patrick Gannon (9-1), who needed one win to become the program’s all-time leader in wins with 28. The T-bolts made certain the Purdue-bound lefty will remain tied with 1965 graduate Lou Pacierb, with 27.

Kyle Bogdal (2-for-5) led off the first inning with a single, and Matt Healy (2-for-4) also singled. One out later, and after the Crusaders botched not one but two rundowns, Jeff Zimmerman (2-for-2) walked for the first of three times to load the bases.

Chris Berardi (3-for-5, four RBI) then hit a one-hopper back to Gannon, who fired wildly past catcher Ricky Palmer for an error and a 1-0 T-bolts lead.

From there, the roof caved in on the Crusaders.

Dan Eliopulos roped an 0-and-2 fastball for a double that scored two runs, and Steve Litko (2-for-4) followed with a two-run single that made it 5-0.

“To get five runs right away, it eased some of the pressure off Brett (Maus),” said DeHaan, who presented the regional-title win to his wife on their 11th wedding anniversary.

Five runs or only one run, it really didn’t matter because of the way the left-handed-throwing Maus was pitching. Brother Rice’s potent offense, which averaged nine runs per game, was held in check.

“Oh, it definitely helped,” Maus said of the five-run lead. “But we were expecting to win this game coming in.”

Berardi’s two-out single in the fourth extended the lead to 6-0.

The T-bolts made certain there would be no late-inning heroics from Brother Rice, which produced some miracle comebacks during a phenomenal 31-3 season. Andrew crossed the plate twice in the sixth and four more times in the seventh against reliever Kevin Koziol.

Zimmerman contributed an RBI double and Berardi an RBI single in the sixth to make it 8-0. Eric Mason and Berardi applied the icing on the regional-championship cake with two-run singles in the seventh.

“We came to play today,” Mason said. “We wanted to just play hard, tough baseball. We came up big.”

While the Thunderbolts resembled a merry-go-round on the basepaths, the Crusaders were stuck in neutral. But that’s how it was for the Crusaders in each of their three losses — all shutouts.

Maus scattered six hits, walked one and struck out seven during an economical 89-pitch effort. The senior effectively mixed his fastball, cutter, split and changeup throughout. But it was his heater that proved most difficult for the Crusaders to catch up to.

The only Crusaders to register multiple hits was Kevin Callahan, who was 2-for-3.

“Everything went wrong, and they outplayed us,” Brother Rice coach Tim Lyons said. “We didn’t do anything right today. You have to tip your cap to them.”