By Sean Duncan

DEERFIELD, IL – St. Viator’s season was one strike away from being over. Chasing two runs in the bottom of the seventh, the Lions’ offense hadn’t shown much of a pulse against an upset-minded Deerfield club, so the final out seemed all but a minor formality.

First came an innocuous walk, then a bloop single, followed by an infield single, then another bloop hit. Two hit batsmen later, and St. Viator somehow, someway scraped together three runs to deny Deerfield its glory, winning 4-3 in the Class 3A Deerfield Regional championship game Saturday.

“Let’s be honest, we got pretty lucky there,” said St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. “I feel like that has always happened to us. … I’ll never say I’m sorry – we’ll take it.”

St. Viator (21-16), which has the pitching to make a run in the Class 3A tournament, struggled mightily against Deefield (12-23) starting pitcher Ryan Adkins. The 5-foot-10, 200-pound senior right-hander effectively moved his 77-80 mph fastball in and out, holding the Lions scoreless through five innings with only four hits.

St. Viator finally scored a run on Roy Pettingill’s RBI double in the sixth, but the rally quickly was extinguished on a line drive double play. Deerfield celebrated the double play like it had won the seventh game of the World Series.

As the Warriors would painfully find out, the game was not over.

Adkins (4-2) retired the first hitter on a ground out, walked the next batter, and got the next kid swinging.  Lions leadoff man Joe Rossi, down to his final strike, poked a soft liner into left field. Then junior second baseman Andrew Ferrante (2-for-4) legged out an infield single to load the bases for third baseman Chris Myjak (3-for-4).

Myjak proceeded to deliver his third consecutive single, this time a bloop shot into the outfield that scored two runs and tied the game at 3-3. The next batter, Cosimo Cannella, got hit by a pitch, which ended the day for Adkins.

The first offering the relief pitcher delivered hit Pettingill, allowing the winning run to walk in.

“That last inning – I’m speechless,” said Myjak. “That was a crazy finish.”

St. Viator would never have been in the position to pull out the game in the seventh if not for Rossi’s play in the first inning. Deerfield loaded the bases with one out when Xander Horwitz smoked a ball deep in the right-center gap. Rossi, a junior centerfielder, covered a ton of ground and made a sprawling catch on the warning track, which undoubtedly would’ve cleared the bases. Deerfield got one run in the inning.

St. Viator junior right-hander Gunnar Kay pitched solidly in his six-inning stint, yielding six hits and two earned runs. Kay struck out five behind an 82-85 mph fastball. Purdue-bound left-hander Tim McElroy pitched a scoreless seventh, showing consistent 85-88 mph fastball.

St. Viator advances to play Vernon Hills in the Class 3A sectional semifinals Thursday.