Baseball: St. Viator splits with Nazareth

St. Viator showed Saturday how quickly fortunes can change in high school baseball.

After dropping the first game of a doubleheader to Nazareth Academy, St. Viator rebounded in the night cap to pound the Roadrunners 10-0 in 5 innings.

"Our kids did a good job of coming back," St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. "We capitalized on some of the two mistakes, and the first inning was all hits."

St. Viator (10-5, 2-2) could not find that formula in the first game in a 5-4 loss.

The Lions had plenty of opportunities but came up empty many times. They could not come up with timely hitting, leaving 7 on base, 6 of which were in scoring position.

"We took too many called third strikes," Manno said. "Our philosophy is to put the ball in play with two strikes. Don't take that called third strike."

They also could not overcome the play of Dayton commit Ryan Turgeon, who homered twice and had 3 hits. Turgeon also pitched the final 2 innings, stranding the tying run on first to end the game with a strikeout for Nazareth (10-4, 2-1).

"Two bad pitches that their kid made us pay for, and we walked in a run," Manno said. "We don't catch a pop up. When you are playing good team, those kind of things will hurt you."

Casey Kmet reached base all 4 times he was at the plate, with 3 hits and walk. He scored twice and his courtesy runner Jake Sinnema also scored twice. Bryce Hellgeth had 2 hits and 2 RBI for the Lions.

"It was one of those game where obviously there were some plays we should have made," Kmet said. "Our hitting was there, just not in timely situations."

That all changed quickly in game two.

After the famous Viator doubleheader lunch, the players showed they were still hungry. The Lions, who were the visiting team in the second game of the twin bill, didn't waste any time at the plate.

The Lions loaded the bases on 2 walks and an error. Hellgeth then singled home Kmet and Jack Mahoney. Ryan Stejskal singled in another run and Michael Wittich doubled home a pair. Just six batters in, it was suddenly 5-0 Lions.

"We had been grinding at-bats in game one, and in game two it just started clicking," said Hellgeth, who will also play at Dayton next year. "One person gets on a roll, the whole team gets going. I had a nice day at the plate and I saw the ball well."

After batting around in the first inning, the Lions went right back to work in the second. Hellgeth had a bases-loaded double to score Kmet and Mahoney. Wittich later singled home a run to make it 8-0.

"We have been struggling to get some hits," Wittich said. "But we felt much better in the second game."

While the Lions were exploding at the plate, Mahoney was slowing down the Roadrunners.

The sophomore had his best outing of the season, limiting Nazareth to 5 hits while striking out two on 72 pitches, 46 of which were strikes.

"It was good for us to come back and show what we still got after a tough loss in game one," said Mahoney. "It was real nice to get the quick lead. I was able to locate all my pitches and having the guys behind me making plays gave me even more confidence."

Manno was impressed with Mahoney's stint on the bump.

"It was probably his best outing since he got here," Manno said. "But he still has a long way to go. But it was a good sign."