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Resurgent Damasky, Prospect power past St. Viator

The high school baseball state playoff pairings come out next week.

In advance of them, Tyler Damasky and Prospect made a huge statement on Thursday in Arlington Heights.

Damasky retired the first 14 batters he faced while the Prospect bats came alive as the Knights shut down St. Viator 9-0.

Damasky, who was making his first varsity start of the season, was terrific.

He threw just 66 pitches, 41 of them going for strikes while allowing just 3 hits.

"I was just trying to throw strikes and work for the team," Damasky said. "My defense was great. I was trying to throw low strikes and gave them groundballs to stay in the game, and they made the plays."

Damasky was one of the keys last summer for Prospect when it advanced to the semifinals of the state tourney. He started the game against Joliet Catholic, which the Knights lost 3-2.

Some time after that, Damasky began to feel pain in his left shoulder.

It was determined he had a slap tear in his shoulder and he has been working to rehab it this spring. Recently, he threw some innings in a pair of junior varsity games for Prospect, which gave Knights coach Ross Giusti an opportunity to start Damasky on Thursday.

"He just adds fuel to our arsenal," Giusti said, "We have been trying to ease him back in and get some work. Obviously, we know what he can do for us in the past. That summer league game against Joliet Catholic was a prime example and he put that on display again today."

The win gives Prospect (20-6) an edge over St. Viator (19-8) when seeds and pairings for the state 4A Stevenson sectional are announced next week.

"This game is certainly a gauge," Giusti said. "We had a good approach. It was our execution and our ability to do the little things that helped us."

While Prospect (10 hits) was making all the plays, Viator was struggling.

Not only did the Lions commit 6 errors, they over-ran third base in the fourth inning with two outs instead of having the bases loaded.

From there, Prospect left fielder Brendan O'Brien hit cutoff man Pat Donohoe, who then flipped to Jake Cavaiani, who came over from shortstop to make the play.

"They did everything right," St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. "They put pressure on us and we folded. They outplayed us in every facet of the game. We will have to regroup and move on."

Prospect struck for a pair of runs in the first inning to set the stage for the rout.

Donohue scored on the back end of a double steal, thanks to a throwing error and Cavaiani came home on Luke Karz's RBI single.

The Knights added 1 run in the third and fourth innings.

Donohue walked, stole second and went to third, and then came home easily on Grant Miller's single.

Trey Compton scored in the next inning on Matt Nadler's RBI single.

Prospect broke the game wide open in the sixth.

The Knights sent 10 batters to the plate and half of them scored.

Nadler had a sacrifice fly, Karz an RBI single and Miller belted a long double to left that scored a pair of runs.

"I love playing against St. Viator," said Miller, who also plays basketball. "I have been struggling as of late. I have been popping up too much so I was just trying to hit it down and hard."

Miller had 2 hits and 3 RBI. Karz added 2 hits and 2 RBI while Cavaiani and Damasky each had 2 hits.

Wheeling 6, Conant 5: Jake Jordan had a solo homer and a double, Brenden Spillane hit a solo homer and winning pitcher Martin Falkiner had a pair of hits as the host Wildcats rallied for a Mid-Suburban League win.

Alex Khatcherian drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh with a bases-loaded hit as the Wildcats (9-14, 4-8) won their third straight.

Matt Fauth went 3-for-4 in the leadoff spot for Conant (14-10, 6-6), and Jack Lunkes and Anthony Forte had 2 hits apiece.

Christian Liberty 11, Elgin Academy 1: Aiden Miller had a double and was also the winning pitcher as the Chargers produced 8 hits and committed 1 error.

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