St. Rita ace too much for St. Ignatius

With the wind blowing out, it wasn't an ideal day for most pitchers Wednesday at Mount Carmel's Haggerty Field. For St. Rita's Scott Marinier, though, it was just right.

Marinier pitched a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts and one walk, leading No. 3 St. Rita past St. Ignatius 8-1 in a Class 4A Mount Carmel Sectional semifinal. The Mustangs (32-6) will play the Mount Carmel-Oak Park winner in Saturday's title game.

"When he's on the mound, we hope the wind's blowing out because his fastball moves and he's a tough guy to get a good look at," Mustangs coach Mike Zunica said of Marinier (11-0).

The senior right-hander took the less-than-ideal conditions in stride.

"When it's like this, I just try to go up there and do the same thing you would in a regular game," he said. "Just keep the ball down and get your ground balls."

He was successful for the most part, which came as no surprise to teammate Mark Payton.

"He's the type of pitcher, you get 10 (runs), he'll give up eight," Payton said. "You get one, he'll give up zero. He's unbelievable. He's been there all year for us and his record shows it."

Payton (2-for-4, four RBI) got Marinier all the runs he would need with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the first, when he drove a 3-2 pitch from St. Ignatius' Matt Lynch (5-4) over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.

"I haven't been swinging the bat well, not really seeing the ball, just kind of putting the ball in play," Payton said. "(Zunica) was thinking about bunting (the runners) over. He trusted me and that's why he's my favorite coach of all time."

"He's a little bit hard on himself," Zunica said of Payton. "He's been huge for us the last half of the season."

Lynch kept the Wolfpack (22-14) close through three innings, trailing 3-1. But the Mustangs pulled away with two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth.

Payton had an RBI single and another run scored on an error in the fourth. Shane Conlon led off the fifth with a homer to right, while Justin Kopale had an RBI double and Angelo Burrage drove in a run with a groundout in the sixth.

Tom Boyle slugged two doubles for St, Ignatius, the first driving in the Wolfpack's lone run in the top of the first.

St. Rita also had big games from Dan Dispensa (3-for-4, three runs) and Kopale (3-for-3, three runs, RBI).