By Drake Skleba
Senior Writer

Thursday April 9

POWER 25

No. 1 Mount Carmel (9-1) was stunned by Southwestern High School (9-2) of Somerset, Kentucky 5-3 on Thursday morning. No details on the Caravan’s first defeat of the season, have been released as of 10:05 p.m (CDT) on Thursday.

No. 2 St. Rita  (14-0) crushed  North Stanford (VA) 13-1 to advance to the tournament semifinals on Friday in Myrtle Beach. Michigan State-bound Marty Bechina fell a bomb shy of hitting for the cycle and drove in four Mustang runs. Estaban Martinez hammered two doubles as part of his 3-for-3 game and had an RBI. Dan Budziak allowed a run and five hits in his solid five innings to pick up the win. Tennessee-bound Tyler Halas fired two scoreless innings on the mound.

No. 6 Brother Rice (11-2) defeated Louisville (KY) Ballard 5-3 behind Indianapolis-bound Michael Schalasky. Schalasky improved to 3-0 on the mound, allowing two earned runs and five hits in his six solid innings of work. Jack Guzek fired a scoreless seventh to nail down the save. Schalasky singled and plated a Crusader run, while Illinois-bound Mike Massey doubled and plated two runs. Andrew Dyke also doubled and had an RBI. Ballard falls to 9-4.