Mustangs roll to win over Benet

Updated: May 19, 2011 8:39PM

One quality that separates good-to-great teams from the mediocre bunch is the ability to take care of business and do a consistent job of beating the teams you should beat.

When teams go up against better competition while operating within a slim margin of error, mistakes can’t be made because good-to-great teams will immediately take advantage if the window is open even by an inch.

Benet found that out the hard way on Thursday against Chicago Catholic Blue power St. Rita.

Trailing by just one run in the top of the fifth, a two-out error from Redwings’ third baseman Chris Stout directly preceded a two-run homer from Mustangs’ first baseman Joey Filomeno off Benet starter Nick Moore that increased the Mustangs’ lead to 5-2.

Filomeno’s blast over the right-field fence gave Mustangs’ junior left-hander Eddie De La Riva all the breathing room he would need in helping guide No. 6 St. Rita to a 7-3 victory over Benet in Lisle.

“Coach (Mike Zunica) and (assistant) coach (John) Nee always say, ‘extend the inning, extend the inning, extend the inning.’ (Catcher) Zach (Soria) came up with two outs and he got on base. I just wanted to just extend the inning. I knew (Moore) was going to throw a ball outside, so I just got on the plate and was looking for a ball the other way,” Filomeno, who knocked in three runs and has signed with Louisville, said of the homer.

While Filomeno accounted for the game-turning homer, Connor McLain and Ricky Faron combined to go 5-of-7 as St. Rita (26-6) pounded out 10 hits.

The Redwings peppered De La Riva (11-1) for 10 hits of their own but couldn’t find the big hit to put pressure on him, other than Zac Lewinski’s two-run double in the first that accounted for all their scoring until Chris Stout’s RBI single in the seventh.

De La Riva, who has verbally committed to Purdue, tossed six strong innings and his only blemish on the afternoon was Lewinski’s two-run double.

“My changeup was working today. I didn’t have too many strikeouts,” said De La Riva, who allowed just the two runs and fanned three. “My defense came in big today.”

Both Stout and Moore finished 3-for-4 at the plate for Benet (14-17-2), which stranded seven runners.

Loading the bases prior to Lewinski’s run-scoring double in the first, the Redwings let De La Riva off the hook by not doing more damage. All told, they got their leadoff man on base in four innings but only scored him once—R.J. Gatto in the seventh.

“We were just hitting (De La Riva) pretty hard. Obviously, he’s a pretty good pitcher. They’re a good team,” said Moore (0-4), who took the loss after going five innings and giving up three earned runs on six hits. “I think it showed a lot (Thursday) that we’ve been hitting the ball well. … We hit the ball hard, just right at people.”

The 8-6 loss the Redwings pinned on the Mustangs last season was the last time Zunica’s charges lost until losing 10-4 to Naperville Central in the Class 4A state title game.

As the two-time defending Class 4A runner-up following state title game losses to New Trier in 2009 and Naperville Central last June, the Mustangs’ motivation to return to Joliet’s Silver Cross Field for a third straight year to finish the job is extremely high.

“Two years losing in the state championship ain’t no fun,” Filomeno said. “We’re taking it one game at a time. We’ve got a really tough sectional, a good regional. From then on, we’re gonna play good teams day in and day out in the playoffs. It’s playoff baseball.

“We just got to get our job done. It’d be very nice to get back (to Joliet) a third year in a row.”

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