By Sean Duncan

BURBANK ? Steady rain and blustery conditions didn?t prevent No. 6 St. Laurence from celebrating after defeating Brother Rice 9-6 Saturday afternoon.

A newcomer in the state?s toughest conference, the victory gave the Vikings a share of the Chicago Catholic Blue championship. St. Laurence, which previously competed in the Chicago Catholic White Division, tied with No. 1 Providence for conference supremacy. Providence defeated Loyola 5-0 on Saturday.

?This is awesome,? said St. Laurence senior designated hitter Kyle Wood, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI. ?What a great way to go out, especially on senior day. I know a lot of people said we couldn?t hang in the Blue in our first year, but we knew we?d be good and we worked really hard for this.?

The Vikings (24-6, 13-3) won the White Division last year to move up to the Blue Division this spring.

?This is huge for our program,? said St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus. ?We did a real good job of finishing off at the end.?

St. Laurence benefitted from sloppy Brother Rice (10-14, 7-9) defense. The Vikings broke the game open in the third inning when they pushed five runs across thanks to two costly errors and three hits. Wood delivered the big blow, a two-run double to center field, and senior catcher Bryan Villanova also had a run-scoring single in the inning. Six of the Vikings? nine runs were unearned.

The outburst staked St. Laurence to an 8-4 lead after Brother Rice scored four runs in the top half of the third to mount a brief 4-3 advantage. Once the Vikings took control, Lotus brought in senior right-hander Mike Chimera to pitch the final four innings. Chimera retired eight straight at one point before Brother Rice rallied in the seventh for four hits and two runs. But Chimera dodged a big inning when he rolled a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded and no outs.

Sophomore shortstop Kevin Smith made a backhand play in the hole and fired to first baseman Brandon Mallder for the final out of the game.

?I wanted this game more than life itself,? said Chimera, who also had a two-run double in the first inning. ?This means a lot to us. We knew we could compete with all those teams.?

Dominic Albanese and Brian McQuillan each had two hits and two runs scored for Brother Rice, and Conor Sullivan drove in two runs.