St. Viator's depth already showing

St. Viator baseball coach Mike Manno likes it when his team is clean. He likes it even better when it can get its opponent dirty.

Manno's squad played perfectly in the field on Friday while host Elk Grove committed 5 errors.

Viator quickly took advantage of the miscues to roll past the Grenadiers 9-3.

"I think our pitching and defense is going to allow us to compete day in and day out," Manno said. "I hope our hitting catches up."

St. Viator (2-0) was impressive in nearly all aspects of the game.

The Lions looked like they were playing in June rather than mid-March. And they did it without their two D-I players, Ben Dickey (Northwestern) and Jack Coney (Purdue), who were on the bench with injuries.

"I said I think we are deeper this year," said Manno, whose team takes on Libertyville in a terrific early matchup Saturday.

"It is nice to play well early. But you can't win a state title in March. We are happy with the way we are playing, but we still have a long way to go."

Both teams used doubles in the first inning to score their first runs.

St. Viator's Matt Darling led off the game with a deep double to center.

He was then bunted to third base by Kevin Monson and scored on an error on the same play.

In the bottom of the first, Elk Grove's Matt Wary doubled down the third baseline. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out by Brandon Post.

St. Viator broke the game open in the fourth with 5 runs thanks to a pair of Elk Grove errors. It all started with a bunt single by Mike Ragauskis. He went to third on the first of two doubles by Alexander Landy. Both runners then scored on an error to make it 3-1.

Coney, pinch running for Aaron Tres (reached on the error and went all the way to third), then scored on Darling's sacrifice fly. Later, Dan Sullivan doubled home Cole Kmet, who had walked.

"I thought we hit in spots when we needed to when they made mistakes," Manno said. "That's how we need to play to win. We need to put some pressure on them."

Darling, who had a steal, said this is the type of game the Lions like to play.

"That is one of our best traits," Darling said. "We love to bunt and run and put pressure on teams."

The Lions added 3 insurance runs in the sixth.

Again, it was another error that set the stage for the Lions.

Darling, who walked and stole second, scored on an overthrow to first on a comebacker.

Mike O'Neill, who reached on the error, came home when Sullivan belted a mammoth blast over the right field fence for a home run.

"Coach told me to spread out and I did," said Sullivan, a junior who belted 6 homers last year on the sophomore team last year.

Elk Grove coach Terry Benya said his team needed to shake off first-game jitters.

"One of the things we believe in is making the routine play," Benya said. "And we didn't do that today. Very rarely when you don't make the routine play do you give yourself a chance to win."

Junior Shaun Falbo picked up his first varsity win, pitching 4 innings and allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits.

Wheeling 10, Niles West 9 (6 inn.): The visiting Wildcats rallied, scoring 8 runs over the final 3 innings and getting the winning hit from Matt Vollmer to earn their first win of the season.

Wheeling (1-1) had 12 hits as reliever Marty Falkiner earned the victory in relief and Jake Jordan picked up a save after tossing a scoreless sixth inning.

Brenden Spillane finished 3-for-4 with a double, 2 runs scored and a pair of steals, and Vollmer went 3-for-3 with 3 runs scored, 3 RBI and a triple.