By Sean Duncan

CHICAGO ? Some of the top underclassmen in the state were on full display Saturday for the non-conference matchup between No. 4 St. Rita and No. 33 Simeon.

St. Rita, which was playing without several key players, dodged a late seventh-inning rally from a young and exciting Simeon squad to win 4-2. St. Rita improved to 7-1 while Simeon (6-1) suffered its first loss of the season.

Simeon, which started four highly touted sophomores and a freshman, should be loaded for years to come. St. Rita, too, saw the emergence a stellar sophomore prospect, right fielder Connor McLain. With some key bats out of the lineup, McLain found himself hitting cleanup for the Mustangs. McLain struck out his first two at-bats before he unleashed a solo home run in the fifth to left-center field to give St. Rita a 4-0 lead.

?It felt great,? said McLain of his first varsity homer. ?The first two at-bats I had to get out of my way.?

The Mustangs entered the top of the seventh inning with a comfortable 4-0 cushion before Simeon?s bats came to life. The Wolverines pounded out four hits in the inning, including three extra-base hits, to bring standout junior catcher Blake Hickman to the plate with a man on. Hickman blasted the first offering from reliever Nico Zych to dead center field, but the ball was caught just before the fence to preserve the victory for St. Rita starter Richie Matyas (2-0).

?I thought we had a 4-4 tie ballgame,? said Simeon coach LeRoy Franklin.

?That was a good baseball game,? said St. Rita coach Mike Zunica. ?I never at any point thought we were cruising. [Matyas] did a great job keeping us in the game.?

St. Rita mounted a 1-0 lead in the first on junior shortstop Zach Soria?s inside-the-park home run to center field. On the play, Simeon sophomore standout Corey Ray ran face first into the brick wall in center field. After lying on the grass for several minutes, and bandaging up the gash on his face, Ray stayed in the game. In the top of the seventh, the left-handed hitting Ray hammered an opposite-field home run to left-center to make it 4-2. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Ray is currently ranked No. 11 in the Class of 2013.

?I was going to take him out of the game, but he said he wanted to play,? said Franklin. ?His dad said he could play, so he stayed in the game. He?s a tremendous player.?

Matyas pitched 6.2 innings, allowing two runs and nine hits while striking out 6. He also pitched himself out of several jams, including a bases-loaded, one-out predicament in the second and a first-and-third, one-out situation in the fifth.

In all, Simeon stranded eight base-runners and committed consecutive errors in the third inning that led to two unearned runs.

Junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder Shane Brown (3-1) pitched well enough to win. In six innings, Brown yielded only four hits, struck out nine and walked three. Brown, who also went 2-for-4 at the plate, retired the first six outs on strikeouts behind an 82-84 mph fastball and solid breaking ball.

Sophomore second baseman Marshawn Taylor had an RBI double in the seventh, senior Malik Simmons had two hits, sophomore Darien Clifton had a leadoff double in the seventh, and freshman outfielder Darius Day went 1-for-2 with a stolen base for Simeon.

For St. Rita, keep an eye on junior SS/C Zach Soria, a hard-nosed athlete who looked excellent at shortstop. But in St. Rita?s second game of the day against Portage (IN), Soria was catching and showed consistent 1.95-2.0 pop times between innings and in pregame.