Crystal Lake South’s baseball team never lacks confidence.

Friday, playing in their first state semifinal in four years, the Gators just lacked runs. A run, period. Any old kind of run. Any heroic hit.

So when Carson Trivellini, whose blood flows with confidence, doubled with one out in the bottom of the seventh for his third hit of the game, the Gators’ optimism ran high. After all, they had rallied in each of pitcher Devin De Loach’s past two starts to beat Carmel and Grayslake Central, respectively, in the state tournament.

“I had full confidence in all of our guys,” Trivellini said. “They were ready to go. I was just waiting for a big rally to get going there.”

Triad pitcher Nolan Keller squelched the potential rally, however. He retired Nolan Dabrowski on a fly ball to center and Jackson Lee on a groundout to shortstop, finishing off the Knights’ 2-0 win in the Class 3A state semifinal at Slammers Stadium in Joliet.

“I thought he did a nice job of throwing strikes,” South coach Brian Bogda said of Keller, a senior right-hander who also pitched a complete game in Triad’s sectional-final win against Mascoutah. “We just didn’t have that timely hit, the two-out hit or the clutch hit, and that was the difference in the game.”

Triad’s win earned the Knights (36-5) a berth in Saturday’s 1 p.m. championship game against St. Rita (29-12), while snapping South’s 11-game winning streak. The Gators (29-10) will play East Peoria (26-14) in Saturday’s third-place game against East Peoria at 10 a.m.

South, which put its leadoff man on base in five innings, was shut out for only the second time this season.

“There are some goals still on the table,” said Bogda, whose team finished fourth in Class 3A in 2022. “We’d like to get 30 wins. There’s been only one other [South] team that’s done that [the 2017 Gators, who went 36-5 in winning the Class 4A title]. We’re going to try to bring home a third-place trophy, which would be nice.”

“We want to win [Saturday],” Trivellini said after going 3 for 4.

The senior De Loach was effective in his last start as a Gator. His only trouble came in the fourth inning, when Triad scored the game’s only two runs. Lefty-hitting Keegan Seipp led off with a single against the lefty De Loach and hustled to third one out later on Carter Gaskill’s opposite-field double into left-center.

But when left fielder Wes Bogda bobbled the ball, Seipp sped up again and scored. De Loach walked Nathan Klucker to put runners on second and third. The NIU-bound pitcher got a strikeout for the second out, but then allowed an RBI single through the hole between third base and shortstop to Kade Rocca.

DeLoach walked another batter to load the bases before getting a called third strike to end the inning.

“That’s just tough hitting on their part and a little bit of situational blindness out of me, speeding up a little bit, doing a little too much,” De Loach said. “I got a great defense behind me. I probably could have just thrown some more strikes, got more ground balls.”

South had a chance to get a run back in the bottom of the fourth. John Morgan and Michael Rathjen hit back-to-back singles with two outs. Ryan Morgan then hit a ball up the middle. Freshman second baseman Kody Anderson backhanded the ball and flipped it with his glove to shortstop Kannon Seipp on the second-base bag, but the throw sailed high.

As Anderson alertly fielded the ball, Brian Bogda sent pinch-runner Reed Mitchell home. Anderson calmly fielded his own errant throw and easily threw out Mitchell at home.

“I made a glove flip because I thought that was my only choice,” Anderson said. “I got lucky on that one.”

His coach loved the confidence but not the backhanded flip.

“It was a nice bounce,” Knights coach Jesse Bugger said. “Once he picked it up, I thought as long as he doesn’t panic, he has a pretty good margin to make a throw and get the kid out.”

Brian Bogda took the blame for sending the freshman Mitchell.

“The [second baseman] recovered the ball a lot better than I initially thought,” Brian Bogda said. “We typically play really aggressive on the bases, bunting and putting pressure on teams. I’ve done that before, and we’ve been successful with it. Reed [Mitchell] was running 100%. Totally my fault.”

Triad’s offense never threatened again.

De Loach rebounded to retire the last eight batters he faced, including the side in the fifth and sixth innings, before he was pulled with two out in the seventh.

“He gave us a chance to win, one of his better efforts of the year, for sure, against a really good offense,” Brian Bogda said. “We made plays for him. We had guys in the right spots. ... I’m really proud of Devin. I wanted him to soak in the moment [before leaving the mound in the seventh].”

De Loach threw 108 pitches, striking out seven, walking two and allowing five hits, three in the pivotal fourth.

“I was super determined to just keep going out there,” De Loach said. “I believe in my offense, and I was like, ‘We’re going to tie this thing up. I’m going to go all the way.’ ”

South had nine hits but stranded nine on base. Nick Stowasser, who doubled in the first, had a 390-foot flyout with two on and two out in the third. Designated hitter Ryan Morgan was 2 for 3 from the No. 9 spot, while his identical twin, John, had a single.

“Tough one, for sure,” Trivellini said. “One game away from the state championship and maybe winning it all. One hit away, one miscue. Nick [Stowasser] hits the ball hard to center. Just [a lack of] timely hitting. I thought we hit the ball really hard for the most part. Our offense was there. They just made some good plays and had guys at the right spots.”

Keller’s effort on the mound helped Triad earn its first championship-game berth after three semifinal losses under Bugger.

“It wasn’t really my best day,” said Keller, who struck out only two in a 98-pitch performance. “Ultimately, just having the trust of the coaches to let me back out for that seventh – I’ve been playing this game my whole life – I just found a way to do it.”