BASEBALL: Brother Rice ousts Lake Orion to reach Final Four
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BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
SALINE — Both Birmingham Brother Rice and Lake Orion have proved time and time again to be one of the most consistent baseball programs not only in the area, but in the entire state during the past decade.
Brother Rice proved to Lake Orion that is was superior on Tuesday in the first head-to-head meeting the schools have had the pleasure to engage in on the baseball diamond.
The Warriors, ranked sixth in the final Division 1 coaches poll, used a five-run fourth inning to pull away from Lake Orion and defeat the Dragons, 7-3, in a state quarterfinal at Saline High School.
Brother Rice (30-8-1) advances to the Final Four in Battle Creek for the first time since 2008 and will face Howell at 11 a.m. Friday at Bailey Park. Lake Orion, ranked 11th entering the postseason, finishes 32-8.
“The difference to me today was our pitching,” smiled Brother Rice coach Bob Riker. “I think we out-pitched them today. That, and we got some timely hits.
“It’s funny, though, that we scored only five runs on Saturday in winning the regional and seven today,” continued Riker. “If you would have said that we’d be playing today after scoring only five runs in (two regional) games, I wouldn’t have believed it. And to take nothing away from the pitchers we faced Saturday, but we scored seven runs off a very good pitching staff against Lake Orion.”
Brother Rice scored a run in the second, five more in the fourth, and one in the fifth, while Lake Orion could only muster a three-run fourth.
The Warriors collected 10 hits on the day, and did so off Lake Orion’s big guns of Josh Bays, Brad Schaenzer and Nick Deeg. Brother Rice also drew five walks and had another batter hit by pitch.
Bays pitched 4 2/3 innings and suffered the loss for Lake Orion.
Randy Righter got the win on the mound for Brother Rice, with relief help coming from the arms of Josh Smith and Dalton Greyerbriehl. Together they scattered nine hits and just one walk, routinely keeping the Dragons from stringing together a rally.
“They played better than we did,” sighed Lake Orion skipper Andy Schramek. “They turned around and scored runs and we were playing catch-up after the second inning. Their pitching staff did a great job mixing it up. Even though we got nine hits, we didn’t bunch them together. I think that was a big difference in the game.”
Righter, who got the win and left in the fifth inning with a 6-3 lead, said that this has been his dream since he entered high school three years ago.
“This is the reason I came to Rice, to be in this type of position. Ever since I was in ninth grade, I wanted to go to Battle Creek” he said. “Now we are finally going to make that happen.”
Lake Orion only runs came from a three-run blast from Schaenzer. The Dragons did put two on with no outs in the seventh but couldn’t not push another run across the plate.
The loss was Lake Orion’s fourth in the state quarterfinals round since 2000, although the dragons did win the D-1 state title in 2007.
Freddy Jehle finished 4-for-4 for Brother Rice. Sammy Stevens hit an RBI single, Nick Plummer contributed a sacrifice fly that plated another run and Righter helped his own cause with a two-run double in the contest for the Warriors.
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FOR MORE BASEBALL COVERAGE: http://northoaklandsports.com/?s=Baseball&x=16&y=13
Have photos or video of this event that you wish to share? E-mail pertinent information to www.northoaklandsports.com Senior Editor Dan Stickradt at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com or e-mail results@northoaklandsports.com.
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