SM South beats Lee’s Summit West at River City Festival

LAWRENCE | With an experienced lineup returning from a state tournament appearance last year, the Shawnee Mission South baseball team had enough pieces in place to think big this season.

Well, as long as it could find some pitching depth, that is.

With a 5-2 win Friday over Lee’s Summit West at Kansas’ Hoglund Ballpark, the Raiders improved their record to 8-0.

Their pitching, well, it seems is deep enough after all.

SM South junior left-handed pitcher Ben Prill, new to the varsity squad this season, allowed four hits and one run over five innings in picking up his second win of the season. He struck out three batters and walked two, and while he didn’t feel he had his best stuff, it was good enough for another Raiders victory.

“We knew we were going to do pretty good this year if we had some pitching,” Prill said.

They also knew senior right-hander Mike Morin would be a dependable ace on the mound — and he has been.

Filling out the rest of the pitching staff was paramount.

SM South coach Mitch Wiles said he has as many as six pitchers he feels comfortable using now.

“Now, I would say (pitching) is one of our strong points,” senior outfielder Dominic Fazio said. “I thought Morin was going to be one of the only guys. We’ve had guys step up big time.”

Playing in Lawrence as part of the annual River City Baseball Festival, SM South scored runs in each of the first three innings and took a 3-0 lead.

The Raiders pushed their advantage to 5-1 when Fazio knocked a two-run single up the middle with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

Junior Brett Wilson relieved Prill. He allowed Lee Summit West to score a run in the sixth before striking out three of the four batters he faced in the seventh, closing out the game.

Junior Nick Zuk had two hits and an RBI, and Fazio had two hits and two RBIs, leading the Raiders offensively.

The three-day River City Baseball Festival concludes today with four games each at Hoglund Ballpark and CommunityAmerica Ballpark (the first games start at 9 a.m., and the finales are scheduled for 4:30 p.m.) and one at Lawrence Free State.

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-04-18 00:06:02

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