Brother Rice and Marist are an even 5-5 against one another since April of 2016, but likely not for long. The Crusaders will square off against the RedHawks at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Brother Rice is coming into the game hot, having won their last three games.
Brother Rice is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Illinois' top teams: St. Laurence, who was ranked third at the time (Brother Rice was ranked first). The Crusaders came out on top against the Vikings by a score of 6-2 on Saturday.
Brayden McKendrick
| 05/17/25 vs St. Laurence | 1 |
| 05/10/25 vs Providence Catholic | 1 |
| 05/03/25 @ St. Rita | 0 |
Brother Rice got a great performance from Brayden McKendrick as he pitched six innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off one hit. McKendrick has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than one hit in three consecutive appearances.
At the plate, Aidan Nohava and Gavin Triezenberg did most of the damage at the plate: Nohava went 2-for-3 with one home run, while Triezenberg went 1-for-3 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one double.
Meanwhile, Marist made easy work of Carmel on Saturday and carried off a 10-4 victory. With that win, the RedHawks brought their scoring average up to 6.2 runs per game.
The team relied heavily on Joey Gumuls, who went 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and two runs. That's the most runs he has posted since back in April of 2024. Jack Bullington also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.
Marist kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 16 hits. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now got at least nine hits in eight consecutive contests.
Brother Rice pushed their record up to 29-2 with the victory, which was their 18th straight at home. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.6 runs on average over those games. As for Marist, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 19-12 record this season.
Brother Rice beat Marist 6-3 in their previous meeting back in May of 2024. Will the Crusaders repeat their success, or do the RedHawks have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
