St. Viator comes out swinging

It was the type of game St. Viator needed as the Lions began action in the Class 4A baseball playoffs.

After losing 3 of their last 4 games and struggling at the plate, St. Viator banged out a pair of home runs and blew past Zion-Benton 10-0 in the Glenbrook South regional Wednesday in Glenview.

St. Viator (23-13) will be seeking a fifth regional title in the last six years at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Lions will meet the winner of Thursday's game between Buffalo Grove and Glenbrook South.

"It was a great way to start the playoffs," St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. "We have had a lot of 1-run nail-bitters and we know that is how the tournament will be. But it was nice to see us hit."

The Lions rapped out 10 hits, with homers from Matt Darling and Dan Sullivan.

The Lions, who were seeded No. 4 in the Stevenson sectional appeared to be in trouble early against Zion-Benton, which was seeded No. 20.

The Zee Bees had runners and second and third with no outs in the top of the first. But St. Viator pitcher George Burny settled down to get a groundout and strikeout before walking the next batter. Burny then induced an easy fly out to end the threat.

"I was worried about it," said Burny, who allowed Zion's only hit of the game in that inning while finishing with 5 strikeouts. "But my coaches taught me about my mechanics before the game and how to keep my composure. All I had to do was think about that and I got out of it."

Manno thought Burny's play gave the Lions a huge lift.

"It kind of energized us," Manno said. "It really set the the tone for us after getting out of that mess in the first."

The Lions rewarded Burny, who improved to 8-3 on the season, for his strong effort to get out of the jam. After Ben Dickey doubled and Aaron Tres was hit by a pitch, Darling lofted a homer to right to put Viator up 3-0.

"It was a surprise," Darling said. "I didn't think it was going over and was going to hit the fence. But when it went out I was really happy."

The Lions added another run when Sullivan reached on an error and went to second on a wild pitch. He then scored on Jason Wilhite's single.

The Lions put the game away in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring 3 runs in each of the innings.

In the fourth, after Jack Coney banged out his second hit of the game, Dickey followed with his second hit, a bloop triple to right. Tres then doubled and came home to score on Darling's single.

In the fifth, Sullivan blasted a long homer to right that bounced off of one of the St. Viator vans in the parking lot. Landry singled and Coney walked, and both scored on a pair of throwing errors to end the game.

"The energy we had going into this game," Coney said. "We weren't worried about making mistakes. We came out aggressive and it paid off for us."