Box | Plays | Cumulative: Brother Rice | JSerra Catholic

CARY, N.C. -- Dmitri Susidko came up with two huge squeeze bunt RBIs and seven other Lions tallied hits as JSerra Catholic beat Brother Rice 8-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 National High School Invitational presented by the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance.

JSerra Catholic advances to the semifinals where they will face Santa Margarita on Saturday at the National Training Complex in Cary.

The Lions were dominant on offense and defense on Thursday night, scoring three runs in the second and sixth innings and a pair in the third. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Ben Reimers and reliever Darius Lukowski combined to scatter three hits over seven innings and striking out four batters in a shutout. Reimers struck out three and gave up just one walk in the victory.

Brother Rice starter Jackson Natanek surrendered five runs (four earned) and walked four batters to suffer the loss on the night. Tadgh Callaghan, Mike Dematteo, and Jack Gilmartin all pitched in relief. Dematteo gave up three runs on four hits in his 0.1 inning relief effort.

Ryusei Fujiwara paced the Lions’ offense, going 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs, and Trent Caraway also contributed a multi-hit night going 2-for-4 with an RBI on a night where eight different JSerra Catholic batters tallied a hit.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• Dmitri Susidko put JSerra Catholic on the board in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a squeeze bunt, scoring Brandon Change to put the Lions up 1-0.
• With runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the second, Ryusei Fujiwara pushed a two-RBI single to extend JSerra Catholic’s lead to 3-0.
• JSerra Catholic’s Jonathan Menedez doubled to left field to lead off the bottom of the third inning and would come around to score on a wild pitch to make it 4-0 in favor of the Lions.
• Dmitri Susidko picked up his second RBI of the night on his second squeeze bunt to give JSerra a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.
• The Lions tacked on another three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach at 8-0 thanks to a wild pitch, a Trent Caraway triple off the left-field wall, and a Marcus Greis RBI-single up the middle.
• Brother Rice tried to rally, putting two runners on in the top of the seventh inning, but a fly out to left ended the game, 8-0.

NOTABLE INFORMATION

• Ryusei Fujiwara went a perfect 3-for-3 with two RBIs for the Lions, pushing his tournament average to .571.
• Both of Dmitri Susidko’s two RBIs came from a squeeze bunt, scoring runs in the second and third innings for JSerra Catholic.
• Ben Reimers earned the win for JSerra Catholic, giving up just three runs in six innings and striking out three batters.
• Brother Rice starter Jackson Natanek suffered the loss after surrendering five runs (four earned) and walking four in 2.1 innings.
• Tadgh Callaghan gave up three runs on four hits in his 0.1 outing for Brother Rice.
• Five different Crusaders pitched in hits on the night, including singles from pinch hitters Danny Durkin and Connor Lyons.

ON DECK

• JSerra Catholic advances to face Santa Margarita Catholic in the NHSI semifinals on Saturday at the National Training Complex.
• Brother Rice will face a to-be-determined opponent in consolation action on Saturday.

All games of the 2023 NHSI will be streamed on USABaseball.TV and @USABaseballTV on YouTube.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Stay tuned with all of the action at the 2023 National High School Invitational by following @USABEvents on Twitter and @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Fans and media can use #NHSI23 in their posts.