Baseball: St. Viator makes regional final; Maine West wins a thriller
St. Viator's baseball team extended its postseason at Prospect's expense on Thursday.
The 10th-seeded Lions topped the eighth-seeded Knights 7-2 in Class 4A regional semifinal play at Mundelein.
Casey Kmet started a 3-run fourth inning for the Lions by leading off with a solo homer. St. Viator later added 2 more runs on an error and a wild pitch.
Kmet also drove in a run with a single in the fifth. Teammate Jason Fitzmaurice had an RBI single in the sixth, and in the seventh, Hunter Johnson and Casey Pulikowski both delivered RBI doubles.
Meanwhile, St. Viator Jack Mahoney gave up a pair of earned runs in the first inning but was tough over the final 6. He yielded 4 hits and 3 walks but struck out nine in a complete-game triumph.
Nick Ergastolo drove in both runs for Prospect (19-12) with a single, and Anthony Composto contributed a double.
St. Viator (20-16) advances to the championship game against regional host Mundelein, the No. 2 seed in the St. Viator sectional, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Maine West 6, Maine South 5 (11 inn.): With daylight fading, Maine West was left to look ahead to a bright fure.
The Warriors survived a tense extra-inning contest against the Hawks at Maine East in regional semfinal play.
Ninth-seeded Maine West rallied for 2 runs in the top of the 11th, then allowed eighth-seeded Maine South 1 run in the bottom half before getting the third out with the bases loaded.
Coach Mike Randazzo and Maine West (12-13) advance to a date against Oak Park-River Forest, the top seed in the Loyola sectional, at 11 a.m. Saturday at Maine East with the regional title at stake.
Matt Johnston drove in the go-ahead run in the 11th, and Eric Olson scored him with a single in the next at-bat.
In the bottom half, Maine South had already scored once when a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with two outs. Cory Scholler got the final out on a swinging strikeout on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.
Sending the game to extra innings had some drama of its own, as David Roscoe's single in the top of the seventh scored Matty Mustari to tie it 4-4.
In the fifth inning, Maine West scored on a sacrifice fly from Roscoe, an RBI double by Mustari and an RBI double from Josh Wastyn.
Johnston and Emmett Olson both finished with 2 hits, and Mustari drew 3 walks from his leadoff spot.
Wastyn pitched the first 6 innings and allowed 4 runs, while Scholler worked the final 5 and yielded only the 1 run in the 11th inning to get the victory.
Loyola 4, Leyden 2: The Eagles plated 2 runs in the top of the first inning, but Loyola did the rest of the scoring to prevail in regional semifinal action at Notre Dame.
Ben Wagner allowed 8 hits and struck out nine in a complete-game effort for the fourth-seeded Ramblers (20-9-1), who advance to a Saturday regional final against Notre Dame, a 6-2 winner against Taft.
Thirteenth-seeded Leyden (12-20-1) had an RBI triple from Matt Ozanic (2-for-3) and an RBI double from Nick Herrera.