Baseball: Lucas Smith, Nazareth walk it off with improbable rally against Lemont

BURBANK – Nazareth junior Lucas Smith was trying to keep it simple as he dug in against Lemont reliever Brandon Johnson with his team one pitch away from elimination Thursday.

“That whole at-bat I was thinking, ‘Just let it get deep, and try to get it on the barrel,’ ” said Smith, a UIC recruit. “ ‘And don’t try to do too much.’ ”

Smith did just enough, bouncing a two-strike curveball into left field for a bases-loaded single that plated the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Luca Fiora and Finn O’Meara scored on the play to complete Nazareth’s comeback from five runs down in a thrilling 6-5 victory over Lemont in a Class 3A St. Laurence Sectional semifinal.

The second-seeded Roadrunners (30-7) will play top-seeded St. Laurence in Saturday’s 11 a.m. final.

“The guys on the bench stayed energetic the whole game,” Smith said. “Nobody gave up. Everybody gave it their all, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Third-seeded Lemont (25-9) scored two unearned runs in each of the first and third innings and led 5-0 after Carter Storti’s RBI double in the top of the fifth.

But the Roadrunners scored three in the bottom of the fifth and three more in the seventh in an improbable comeback.

It started when Luke Brabham and Nick Dritina were hit by pitches with the bases loaded in the fifth. Johnson then relieved starter Ryan Klukas and walked freshman pinch hitter Jaden Fauske to force in another run.

But Johnson then struck out the side, all on called third strikes, to get out of the jam. He struck out three more, including two in the seventh sandwiched around a walk to Fauske.

Fiore followed with a walk, and then O’Meara punched a two-strike single to left to load the bases for No. 9 hitter Cole Reifsteck, who was hit by a pitch to make it 5-4.

That set the stage for Smith, who already had two singles out of the leadoff spot. Earlier in the season, he belted a walk-off homer against Yorkville, so O’Meara, standing on second base, had confidence.

“Lucas has done this before,” O’Meara said. “So I had a feeling he would come through.”

Smith did. When the ball went through, Nazareth coach Lee Milano waved home O’Meara, who slid into home ahead of the throw from left fielder Brody Small.

“Obviously it’s a big situation, and you’ve got to be going,” O’Meara said. “I was taking my secondary lead and made it so I had a chance.

“I had taken a big lead knowing that if that situation arose, I had to be able to score on that.”

Rounding first base, Smith knew O’Meara would beat the throw. But it wasn’t easy considering Small had thrown out Smith at the plate on a similar play in the third inning. Small also robbed Sam Wampler of a home run in the fourth inning.

“In that situation, you’re going no matter what,” Smith said. “Finn’s got some wheels on him, and I knew he was going to score.”

Milano never hesitated, either.

“If I stop him there, I look like an idiot,” Milano said. “If they throw him out, so be it. You got to go for the win.”

The Roadrunners got the win despite starting five sophomores and a junior. That doesn’t include O’Meara, who entered as a pinch hitter in the fifth and struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

“We always talk about I don’t know when you’re going to get a chance to help us win, but be ready,” Milano said. “Finn O’Meara, he comes up in just an unbelievably difficult tough spot and gets that base hit, and Lucas has done it all year.

“It’s a very resilient group, but [Lemont] played a great game. That had to be a tough way to go out.”

Indeed, Lemont coach Brian Storako lamented the eight walks and three hit batsmen yielded by his pitchers.

“We talked about if we walk batters and hit batters, we’re going to be in trouble,” Storako said. “That’s how they scored their six runs.

“They got big hits, don’t get me wrong, but when you give a good team like that more at-bats or free passes, it’s going to be tough. But the kids went out there and battled, and that’s all we ask of them.”

Nazareth now has a chance to win its eighth sectional title. It would be the most unlikely one.

“It means the world to us,” Smith said. “We’re just going to go out there and give it our all.”