Marian Central 3, Driscoll 0

Driscoll made its last stand for the Suburban Catholic Conference baseball championship on Thursday.

Unfortunately for the Highlanders, Matt Huck stood a little firmer.

The Marian Central Catholic senior pitcher threw a 3-hitter in Addison, blanking Driscoll 3-0 to seal the outright conference title.

The Highlanders (17-8, 9-3) came into the game hoping to pull into a tie in the loss column with Marian Central (15-4, 12-1). Instead, the Hurricanes wrapped up the title early behind their unbeaten right-hander.

Huck struck out only two batters but fed his infield 11 groundball outs.

"Usually I get a lot of strikeouts, but groundballs work out a lot better because it keeps your pitch count down," said Huck, who improved to 7-0 with a 96-pitch effort. "It feels great (to win the SCC). We've been looking to do this since we were freshmen. We won it freshman year, sophomore year and now as seniors."

In the midst of a pitchers' duel that also featured a strong outing by Driscoll's Corey Eisenmann (5-3), Marian Central got all the runs it needed in the third inning when No. 9 hitter Dan Piggot laced a 2-run homer over the left-field fence.

The next inning the Hurricanes added an insurance run when Andy Stochl's groundout scored Jim Furlano, who doubled twice.

Beyond that Eisenmann was masterful through five innings while retiring the side three times. He got into jams in the sixth and seventh innings but escaped unscathed.

At the plate, however, Driscoll couldn't get anything going. The Highlanders put four players in scoring position throughout the game but couldn't come up with the key hit against Huck.

"We're in a little bit of a funk right now," said Driscoll coach Sean Bieterman. "Today we pitched real well, but we didn't swing it well. But now that the monkey's off our back in the conference, we can focus on the state tournament and really pull together for what's ahead."

While Marian Central has nearly two weeks to prepare for the Class 3A tournament, Driscoll opens Class 2A play Wednesday.

With two SCC games still to come early next week, the Highlanders could have been faced with a pitching dilemma if they wanted to make a push for the conference title. Marian Central solved that dilemma by claiming the outright title.

"We've still got a lot to play for, and that's what we'll focus on," Bieterman said.