Baseball: St. Viator hits its way into regional final

St. Viator's baseball team allowed Northside 4 runs in the first inning - but then the Lions' own bats got busy.

And stayed that way.

In a Class 3A regional semifinal hosted by St. Viator on Thursday, the Lions produced 12 hits and took advantage of 5 errors in a 15-5 victory that took 5 innings.

Next for second-seeded St. Viator is a 10 a.m. regional title matchup against No. 10 seed Woodstock, which topped Vernon Hills 10-6 in the second game Thursday at Viator.

Cole Kmet, Hunter Johnson and Bryce Hellgeth each finished 2-for-2 with 2 RBI for St. Viator. The big blow for the Lions was Michael Wittich's 3-run homer, which was part of a 7-run third inning.

Brett DeSelm and John Finnegan also had 2 hits, and Joe Sarnello drew 3 walks and scored 3 runs.

Hellgeth pitched the full 5 innings for St. Viator (19-15) to earn the victory. He tossed 3 scoreless innings following the first inning and allowed 1 run in the fifth.

Glenbrook North 2, Prospect 1: In a Class 4A regional semifinal at Warren, the Mid-Suburban East champs bowed out despite a nicely pitched game by senior Ben Courtney.

In a complete-game effort, he struck out six, walked two and allowed 4 hits -and one of the 2 runs he allowed in the second inning was unearned.

Spartans starter Tommy Gertner struck out 10 and walked none.

Ryan Howe had a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning for the Knights, but Grant Whitebloom had the only other hit for Prospect, a double.

Glenbrook North, the No. 12 seed in the Glenbrook South sectional, advances to a 10 a.m. regional final matchup to be hosted by No. 4 seed Warren.

Prospect, the No. 5 seed, wraps up its season at 17-12.