Zion Rose’s mother, Karin, sent him a text after school Wednesday.
It had an emoji with a sad face.
“I texted back and said, ‘What’s wrong?'” he said. “She texted back, ‘Do you really want to know?’ I texted, ‘What’s going on?'”
The next text put a smile on his face.
That one had an email from Chuck Fox, a Major League Baseball executive, inviting Rose to play in the third annual High School All-American Game on July 15 at Dodger Stadium.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God,'” he said. “She really faked me out.”
The Louisville-bound junior catcher‘s big week continued Saturday morning for the host Crusaders in the Class 4A Brother Rice Regional championship game.
Rose, who was just named the Catholic League Blue Player of the Year, had two hits in one inning as top-seeded Brother Rice rolled to a 12-1 victory over Reavis in five innings.
It’s the sixth straight regional title and 16th overall for the Crusaders (32-5), who advanced to play Lyons (18-14) at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Reavis Sectional semifinals.
Lyons erased a 7-3 deficit Saturday to beat St. Rita 12-7. Brother Rice beat the Lions 3-1 in a May 20 nonconference game, with two runs scoring on errors.
Rose, meanwhile, will be making his second trip to Los Angeles for the High School All-American Game. His first was a day at Venice Beach, and he’s dubbed LA his favorite city.
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This time, however, it won’t be a day at the beach.
“I’m going to be playing with a great group of guys,” Rose said. “Some of the best players in the nation.”
Jack Lausch, who won the Catholic League’s Tony Lawless Award for both baseball and football, was happy for his teammate.
“He’s unbelievable,” Lausch said of Rose. “He’s a great dude. He’s a beast. I love being around him and I love playing with him. He makes everybody else better.”
Brother Rice coach Sean McBride, the Catholic League Coach of the Year, has appreciated Rose’s accomplishments on and off the field.
“He’s Mr. Consistent,” McBride said. “He’s been great all year. We always knew physically he was as good as anybody. I’m most proud of his work ethic and leadership qualities.
“He sets the example for everybody.”
The Crusaders broke a scoreless tie Saturday by sending 12 batters to the plate in the third inning and scoring eight unearned runs on three errors against eighth-seeded Reavis (20-14-1).
The Rams, who didn’t muster a hit off pitchers Dylan Warda and Cole Van Assen, scored an unearned run in the fourth when Martin Villagomez raced home on a pickoff play that went awry.
Brother Rice scored four more unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth.
“If you are going to lose, lose to the best,” Reavis coach Don Erickson said. “If we play our best baseball, we can hang around them like we did the first couple of innings.
“We played like we typically play. We’re a good team that makes a couple of errors a game, and we need to be a great team to hang with a team like this.”
Rose and Will Flanigan each had two hits and Andrew Ivy Jr. had two RBIs for Brother Rice. Ivy, Christian Holmes, Bryce Nevils and Beau Polickey each scored two runs.
In the postseason, the Crusaders have outscored their opponents 23-1. Thirteen of their 32 victories this season have been by 10 or more runs.
“This team is great — I love this team so much,” Ivy said. “These are all my brothers. We want to try to win and win big if we can.”
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Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.