Baseball: St. Viator routs Carmel, now 16-0
St. Viator continued its diamond dominance Tuesday in Arlington Heights.
The Lions banged out 11 hits and took advantage of five errors to cruise past Carmel 11-1. The win kept St. Viator (16-0, 4-0) unbeaten this season as they remained atop the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
"This is a great group," said St. Viator assistant coach Tim Miller, who was filling in for head coach Mike Manno who missed the game due to personal reasons.
"We hit on all facets of the game. We hit, we pitched, we applied pressure to the other team and our bench was in the game. We are on roll and we hope to keep it going."
Carmel (5-8, 1-2), which was without three starters due to illness, got off to a great start.
Brady Baker walked and James Schottb followed with a double down the left-field line, sending Baker to third. Baker then scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0.
But it was all Viator from there.
The Lions answered with 6 runs in their half of the inning, sending 12 batters to the plate.
Ian Farrell, who had two hits, singled home a pair of runs. Joe Bollard, who had three hits, drove in one of his two runs.
"Everything felt real smooth today," said Bollard, a senior. "I have been struggling to get some hits the last couple of games. I worked out in the machine today before the game and it felt like everything was clicking."
Bryan Hatch and Connor Nichols each had RBI singles as the Lions gave their starting pitcher Casey Hintz a huge lead.
And Hintz didn't disappoint with that lead. He allowed just one hit and two other baserunners over the next four innings.
"The team really came out for me swinging in the first inning," said Hintz, who singled up the middle to get that first inning rally started.
"I felt more comfortable we had the big lead. I knew I could really go at the hitters and not try to work around them like I did in the first inning."
Viator kept the pressure on, scoring a run in the second and two in each the fourth and fifth innings to put the game away.
Von Schlegell had two hits, including an RBI double. Chase Carroll had an RBI double while Tony Pluta walked three times and scored twice.
"I am finally finding where I am supposed to be, what spot I need to be in my load," said Von Schlegell, who leads the team in RBI. "It felt like a good team win and we all contributed well."
Carmel, which hosts Viator on Thursday, hopes to have at least two of the starters back in the lineup then.
"There is difference between pitching and throwing and we threw a little bit today," Carmel coach Chuck Gandlofi said. "They still hit the ball pretty hard in the first inning, so give them credit. They put it on us in the first inning and it was hard to come back against a pitcher like that who keeps throwing strikes and keeping the ball down."