St. Viator bounces back
St. Viator wasted no time in rebounding after losing its baseball season opener Tuesday to Elk Grove.
In the Wednesday rematch at Elk Grove, the Lions scored 4 runs in the top of the first inning. That would be all of the offense they needed as they won 6-3.
Chris Myjak didn’t allow an earned run in 5 innings and Joe Ferrante finished for the save for the Lions.
“We executed well,” said Viator coach Mike Manno, whose team lost 5-4 on 2 two-out runs in the top of the seventh Tuesday. “I thought our pitching was great and Myjak did a nice job. We played how I’d like to see us play.”
Myjak had 6 strikeouts and 2 walks and helped Viator make the little things turn into a big first inning. Nick Prazuch singled, Brian Wilhite and Cory Kay bunted for hits, Cosimo Cannella and Myjak drew bases-loaded walks and Andrew Bertagna and Robert Romano drove in runs with fielder’s choice grounders.
Prazuch’s double in the fifth and Wilhite’s sacrifice set up Kay’s RBI groundout. Ferrante added an insurance run with an RBI single in the seventh.
Jack Czeszewski went 3-for-4 for Elk Grove (2-3).
Wheeling 2, Fenton 1: Solid pitching from Matt Hart and Ricky Schwind and offensive execution led Wheeling to the nonconference win in Bensenville.
Hart allowed 2 hits and 2 walks with 9 strikeouts in 5 innings to pick up the victory and Schwind got the save.
Wheeling took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth as Peter Durbin (2-for-3) drove in the first run and scored on Anthony Spiezia’s squeeze bunt. David Shapiro also went 2-for-3 for the winners.
Leyden 12, Hoffman 2 (6 inn.): Senior Sandro Irizarry made a bid to become the No. 3 starter for Leyden (2-0) with a strong 5-inning relief effort.
Irizarry came in after Justin Stawychny pitched the first inning as a tuneup for Saturday’s West Suburban Gold opening doubleheader with Morton.
“It was the best game we’ve seen from Sandro since he’s been on varsity,” said Leyden coach Gary Wolf. “He got on a roll and made his pitches.”
John Marino (3-for-5, 2 RBI), Nick Dimaso (2-for-4, 2 RBI), Stawychny (triple, 3 RBI) and Eric Palmer (3 RBI) led the Leyden offense.
Stevenson 14, Palatine 7: Joe Walsh homered and Cody Bobbit and Kurt Becker doubled for Palatine (1-3) in the nonconference loss.
Stevenson, which finished third in Class 4A last year, won its opener as Isaac Greenspon had 6 strikeouts in 4 innings. Michael Martin went 4-for-4 with 4 runs and Barry Saks had 2 hits and 3 RBI.
Jacobs 2, Conant 1: Jacobs won its season opener on a seventh-inning squeeze bunt by Connor Conzelman. Conant had 3 of the game’s 5 hits — including a triple by Kyle Gizynski — but Mike Taccona took the tough-luck loss.
Glenbard North 4, Schaumburg 0: Glenbard North ace Andrew Bergmann allowed only 1 hit and outdueled Schaumburg senior lefty Kurt Kempema in the nonconference game.