Lafayette returns to district title game

May 20--Cameron Richardson knew the task at hand while standing at third base during the sixth inning of Monday's Class 4 District 16 semifinal.

The Lafayette sophomore took a few steps off the base and when teammate Kylan Kuritz hit a grounder to shortstop, Richardson started a dash home at Phil Welch Stadium.

Richardson beat the throw home for what proved to be the go-ahead run as the Fighting Irish slipped past Benton 5-3 to advance to the Class 4 District 16 title game.

The play-to-win-right-now mentality in the sixth proved to difference for Lafayette, which will play for a chance to return to the postseason for the first since 1997.

Richardson's leadoff double in the sixth became a key moment, helping the Irish (16-6) rally just moments after Benton had tied the game at 3.

"I just knew I had to put the ball in play and luckily it dropped," said Richardson, whose hit fell just past the reach of Dillon Mattice, who dived for it.

Richardson went to third base on a wild pitch with one out and then Kuritz hit a grounder to Chaz Verduzco, who threw home to catcher Jake Foster. The swipe tag on Richardson -- who dived head first into the plate -- came a second too late.

"With the ball in play, I'm going. I knew I had to be smart," Richardson said. "I knew with the ball on the ground, I had to go. If I was in the field, I knew the play was going to come home and then I saw the catcher throw his helmet on the ground, I knew I had to get around it.

"We got lucky, the baseball gods were with us. When we need big plays, we come up."

An error moved Kuritz to third base and he added the insurance run when Brad Hiserote's grounder up the middle hit second base and ricocheted toward first base.

The two-run rally stood as Hiserote worked around two base runners in the top of the seventh to secure a fifth victory on the season for Lafayette against its South Side rivals.

Four of the five games -- the exception a 7-1 win in the Chillicothe Tournament -- were close. Lafayette won the four other games by a combined eight runs.

"I felt like either team could win," Benton coach Mike Musser said. "There is only one of those games I felt we shouldn't have won. I felt four of the five games both teams could walk off saying they should've won it.

"Bottom line is we are done and they are not. We will have to live with it for a year."

Benton trailed 3-0 and down to six outs left, it rallied to forge a tie in top of the sixth. Jake Foster walked to open the frame before three straight singles -- the last from pinch hitter Kaleb McDonald broke up Hiserote's shutout.

Verduzco then sent a grounder to short that hit off Kuritz's glove and rolled into shallow center field, allowing Dalton Lawrence and Devon Burton to score and tie the game.

Richardson, the hero in the sixth, factored into two runs for Lafayette. The left fielder his a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score Cole Lehman, who drew a leadoff walk. Lafayette's first two runs came on RBI single from Kuritz and Hiserote adding a sacrifice fly.

Lafayette, the No. 1 seed, faces No. 2-seeded Smithville in the finals on Wednesday. The Irish beat the Warriors in the first and only meeting this season, 3-2, at Bartlett Park last month.

The title game berth is the first since 2009, when Lafayette lost to Savannah in Class 3.

Smithville 1, Savannah 0

In a pitchers' duel from the onset, a pair of Division I-bound right-handers made quick work of the opposition's lineup.

But Nolan Gromacki's contribution at the plate became a key factor to help the Warriors escape with a close victory in a rematch. The Missouri signee accounted for two of Smithville's three hits, but his double in the second inning became the biggest play of the contest.

Pinch runner Troy Bargman went to third base on a passed ball and a suicide squeeze from Troy Williams gave Smithville (17-9) the only run needed.

Savannah ace Clayton McGinness -- a Wichita State commit -- fanned nine, while Gromacki fanned six in a game that needed only 1 { hours to complete.

"Coming in I knew it would be a pitcher's duel," said Gromacki, whose squad lost 2-0 in the first meeting against the Savages. "The first time we squared it was a low-run game and we had to take advantage of the little things. We played some ball and got things done."

The Savages (15-12) saw its five-game winning streak snapped and lost to Smithville in the district tournament for only the second time in the past six years. Savannah had plenty of chances against Gromacki, posting one runner on base in five of his six innings on the mound.

The big hit, though, didn't come. Chandler Peterson had a pair of base hits -- the only hits Gromacki allowed in front of Missouri pitching coach Matt Hobbs who took in the semifinal game and ran a radar gun behind home plate.

"It was a well played game and who knew that one run in the second inning would hold up," Savannah coach Erich Bodenhausen. "We had a lot of opportunities but we couldn't get a big hit."

Cody Thorn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @SJNPSports.

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