Power-hitting St. Viator stops Deerfield
St. Viator’s bats made plenty of noise in the Highland Park Class 4A regional final on Monday afternoon.
The Lions took advantage of warm and breezy day by launching 4 home runs en route to a 5-2 regional title at Wolters Field.
Seventh-seeded St. Viator (22-13) won its second consecutive regional title and seventh overall in advancing to the Barrington sectional, where it will face No. 3 seed Prospect on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Senior Cory Kay (3-for-4, 3 RBI) hit 2 homers, including a 2-run shot to center in the bottom of the sixth that gave the Lions a comfortable 3-run cushion.
“Two years in a row that we’ve won regionals, it’s pretty exciting,” said Kay, who also added a solo shot in the third. “They weren’t overpowering, but we put good swings on the ball and it worked out well.”
Junior Chris Myjak picked up the win for St. Viator by limiting Deerfield to 2 runs on 6 hits in 5 innings. Robert Romano shut down the Warriors the final two innings, picking up 3 strikeouts.
“Those two have been big for us all year,” said Viator coach Mike Manno. “In big situations they bear down.”
Myjak pitched out of a jam in the fifth after giving up a leadoff double, and Romano came on in the sixth with the tying run on second and no outs, but induced a force out and struck out the final two batters to leave unscathed.
“We battled the whole way today,” said Myjak, who was also the winning pitcher on Saturday.
St. Viator loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first, but the Lions came away empty when Cosimo Cannella popped up to first and Nick Prazuch was nailed at the plate trying to score.
But Lions came back in the bottom of the second when Kevin Patzke launched a 3-2 pitch to left-center to give Viator a 1-0 advantage.
Fifteenth-seeded Deerfield (15-18), which beat No. 2 seed Stevenson 3-2 on Friday, tied the score at 1-1 without a hit, when Scott Ingram was hit by pitch, took second on a passed ball, was sacrificed to third and scored on a force out.
Kay led off the third with a solo shot to give Viator a 2-1 cushion, but Deerfield responded in the fourth when Brad Holway singled to left and advanced to second on a throwing error. Three batters later, Holway scored on an error to knot the score at 2-2.
St. Viator once again loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth but the Lions couldn’t deliver the clutch hit, leaving three runners on base.
But leadoff hitter Brian Pichardo (2-for-4), delivered in the fifth, greeting Zach Dickstein — the fourth Deerfield pitcher — with a homer to right, giving the Lions a 3-2 lead.
“I thought we battled throughout the game,” said Manno. “We didn’t get a clutch hit with bases loaded, but we found a way — we got it done.”
And now the Lions are hoping to keep the momentum rolling.
“I don’t think we have anything to lose. We’re going to go in loose and see what happens,” added Manno.