Two of the top junior pitchers in the state, Jack Mahoney and Ben Wiegman, went toe-to-toe, as Carmel Catholic traveled to take on No. 24 St. Viator in an East Suburban Catholic League tilt. The pitching matchup lived up to the hype, as Viator’s Mahoney and Carmel’s Wiegman went back and forth trading zero’s and strikeouts, with the game ultimately being suspended due to darkness and the score tied at two after eight innings. The game will be concluded at a later date.

Mahoney, a South Carolina commit, ranked No. 4 in the Illinois’ 2020 class was his usual self, pounding the zone behind an upper-80’s fastball, touching 90 once and showing three pitches for strikes throughout. Mahoney routinely mixed in a mid-70’s 12/6 breaking ball as well as a changeup with feel for the bottom of the zone. Mahoney made clutch pitches when he needed too, striking out the final batter of the inning, with runners in scoring position, in the third, fourth and sixth innings. Mahoney did not give up a run until the top of the seventh inning. With runners at first and second and two outs, senior Andrew Wiegman (Louisville commit), drove a ball to shallow center field, scoring pinch-runner, Matthew Duffy, to tie the game at one apiece. That was the 107th and final pitch of the day for Mahoney. Mahoney’s final line was 6.2 innings pitched, six hits, one run, eight strikeouts and one walk.

Wiegman, a Louisville commit, ranked No. 6 in the Illinois' 2020 class, matched Mahoney pitch-for-pitch and did so with a low 90’s fastball, that touched 93 once. Wiegman did not throw a fastball under 90 mph until the middle of the third inning and sat 87-91 the rest of the way. Wiegman’s breaking ball was his go-to secondary offering and he gained feel for it, and went to it more, as the game progressed. Wiegman’s only blemish came in the bottom of the fourth inning, with one out, when Notre Dame commit, 3B Casey Kmet grounded an RBI single back up the middle, giving St. Viator a 1-0 lead. Wiegman went the full seven innings, gave up three hits, one run, struck out nine and walked two. Both St. Viator and Carmel Catholic have bona fide aces to lean on the rest of the spring and into next year.

IL: @CarmelBaseball and @ViatorBaseball still knotted at 0 thru 2. @benwiegman 3 K’s so far. Has not thrown a FB under 90. Here’s video of one of the strikeouts pic.twitter.com/pWR6G7PTdx

— PBR Illinois (@PBRIllinois) April 8, 2019

Once both starters were out, the game went to extra innings and was being pressed for time due to limited sunlight. Carmel scored first in the top of the eighth to put the pressure on Viator. With one out, Carmel's Kyle Grawe got things started, reaching on an error and later would come around to score on a bases loaded walk to leadoff hitter Jake Adams.

Viator started off the bottom of the eighth with Kevin Wilhite reaching on an error as well. After a wild pitch and a perfectly placed bunt by Casey Hintz, Wilhite found himself at third base. A pitch then got away from the Carmel catcher and Wilhite took off for home without hesitation, sliding in safely for the tying run. Kmet would come up later with a runner on second and two outs but he flew out to center field, suspending the game at 2-2. The game will be concluded at a later date.

Sean Lynch, an Eastern Illinois commit, led the offensive attack for Carmel going 2-for-4.

For more in-depth notes from the games - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog later.

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