Highlight Reel: Brother Rice Baseball Dominating Competition

It was another rainy week in high school sports, but teams at Brother Rice, Groves, Marian and Seaholm still managed to rack up big wins in a variety of spring sports. Brother Rice baseball kept their winning streak alive during a conference rivalry match against Divine Child Friday, while the girls from the Marian and Birmingham Unified lacrosse teams kept things interesting Thursday.

Here are this week's top five moments in Birmingham sports:

1. Brother Rice baseball piling up wins: The Catholic League isn’t easy, but the Warriors are making it look that way. They pushed their win streak to 11 games with two wins over Divine Child Friday in a doubleheader at Wayne State University.
   
   In two games, Brother Rice outscored Divine Child 17-1 (10-0; 7-1). The Warriors were coming off an extended lay-off (eight days) because of the weather, but they didn’t show any rust dispatching their division rival.
   
   Nick Linnen picked up the win in the first game, pitching four innings and allowing no runs. Starter Matt Ruppenthal pitched even better in the second game; the freshman pitched a complete game shutout and struck out 12 batters. On offense, Andrew Sohn continues to set the pace for Brother Rice; he ended the day with three doubles.
2. Mustangs lacrosse wins rivalry game: The game between Birmingham's girls lacrosse teams on Thursday was as good as advertised. The Mustangs edged out Birmingham Unified (a combination of players from Seaholm and Groves) for a 9-8 win.
   
   Not only did Marian get revenge for last year’s 16-13 regional loss to Birmingham Unified, but they also handed Unified its first loss of the season. In the win on Thursday, Marian's Kelsey Summers' 17 saves were just enough for the Mustangs and Megan Spagnuolo led the team with three goals.
   
   Earlier in the week, Marian lost a division game to Cranbrook Kingswood 12-10 on Tuesday, while Birmingham Unified beat Farmington 18-6 on Monday.
3. Seaholm girls pick up first win in track and field: While the boys struggled, the Maples girls won their first meet of the season on Tuesday over Stoney Creek, winning 75-53.
   
   Seaholm won nine of the 15 events at the meet. Top-placing runners in relay events include Tess Wilberdine, Salina Wallace, Allison Wegner, Mallory Wilberding, Aubrey Wilberding, Andrea Giancarlo, Andrea Clack and Brooke Callghan. The Maples also won three of the four individual events: high jump (Elizabeth Vermoesen), long jump (Guilia Jayicoli) and discus (Leonie Steinberg).
4. Groves girls soccer remains unbeaten: How can you go undefeated and not score a goal? When you make sure the other team doesn’t either. The Falcons and Andover played to a 0-0 tie on Thursday with both teams’ goalies picking up shutouts. Groves goalie Lucy Mailing helped her team keep pace in the Oakland Activities Association's White Division by not letting anything past her for a full 80 minutes.
5. Seaholm girls tennis squad nets easy win: The Maples girls tennis team also won easily this week. They beat North Farmington 7-1, with the only loss in the No. 1 singles match — North Farmington's Akanksha Zaishnaz beat Seaholm's Katie Root in two sets (6-4, 6-2). But the Maples were perfect during the rest of the match, including a No. 1 doubles win for Seaholm's Elizabeth Gunckie and Labina Petrozska over North Farmington's Danielle Baisis and Rita Jaddou, in three sets (2-6, 6-0, 6-3).