By Drake Skleba

 

CHICAGO ? On Wednesday, No. 4 Mt. Carmel unloaded on No. 5 St. Rita 18-1 in five innings at Haggerty Field. On Saturday, at St. Rita, the Caravan and the Mustangs were embroiled in a old-fashioned pitchers? duel. Tied at 1-1 after five, Caravan senior right-hander John Kravetz and Mustang junior lefty Eddie De La Riva, were cruising along. Zzzzzz ?

 

Bam! Before the top of the sixth was finished, Mt. Carmel had once again unloaded for seven big runs against De La Riva, and added four more runs in the seventh to crush St. Rita 12-1.

 

Mt. Carmel (24-5, 12-4) outscored St. Rita (23-6, 11-5) 30-2 in its two-game Chicago Catholic Blue sweep.

 

Mt. Carmel?s Indiana University-bound CF Chris Sujka started the Caravan scoring and concluded it. Leading off the ball game, Sujka hit a rocket, soaring over the centerfield fence, for a quick 1-0 Caravan lead. Sujka?s three-run bomb to center, again, in the seventh made it 12-1. For the future Hoosier, it was the 10^th and 11^th bombs of 2011.

 

?I had a good approach at the plate today against De La Riva,? said Sujka. ?The Providence losses really fired us up and we played well in this series.?

 

St. Rita tied the game at 1-1 in the third on an RBI single by Mustang junior 3B Stefano Belmonte.

 

The seven-run Caravan sixth featured an RBI single from sophomore Beau Filkins and an RBI double from senior C Dan Pappas. Sophomore SS Jerry Houston hit the first of his two doubles, with the bases loaded, which broke the game open.

 

?We just went out and had fun and played hard this week,? said Houston. ?My hitting coach helped me out and it felt good to get the double with the bases loaded. We have to play tough in the upcoming tournament against the quality teams we will face.?

 

Caravan 1B Sam Kint had two singles in the inning, the second plating another run, as the Caravan sent a dozen men to the plate in the sixth.

 

?It was a big game for us. We really came out and hit the ball again,? said Kint. ?It was great to get the two hits in the sixth inning. The second one was especially sweet because they walked Jeff (Boehm) to get to me and I wanted to make them pay.?

 

Meanwhile, the University of Illinois-bound Kravetz (8-2) scattered seven hits and struck out five Mustang hitters to pick up his eighth win of the year.

 

?We really got hot with the bats against St. Rita this week,? said Kravetz. ?We?re heading in the right direction going into the playoffs. I had kind of slow start and I really got in a groove after that.?  

 

De La Riva (10-1), a Purdue recruit, allowed eight runs in his six innings of work and suffered his first loss of the season.

 

University of Kentucky-bound Jeff Boehm, was 3-for-4 and was robbed of a perfect day by St. Rita senior CF Mike Zunica, who made a sensational diving catch.

 

St. Rita was led by junior C Zach Soria, who had a couple of singles.

 

?John (Kravetz) was outstanding for us,? said Mt. Carmel head coach Brian Hurry. ?We had the one big inning that was the difference in this game. Chris (Sujka) is as complete a player as I have ever coached.?