At 6-foot-8, St. Laurence’s Jimmy Benson is a tough matchup for any opponent.
Against a lineup tilted heavily to the left side like Triad’s, the sophomore left-hander is an even bigger headache.
Benson took a shutout into the sixth inning and the Vikings’ bats did the rest in an 11-6 win over Triad Friday in the Class 3A state semifinals at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet.
St. Laurence (36-5) is one game away from the first state title in program history. The Vikings will play Benet (27-12) at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Redwings beat Cary-Grove 11-6 in the second semifinal.
Leadoff hitter Connor Marino went 2-for-5 with a run and four RBIs for St. Laurence, Mickey Lotus was 3-for-4 with a double and a run, Adrian Perez went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, and No. 9 hitter Danny Donovan finished 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs.
Benson was in control through five innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out four as the Vikings led 8-0. Triad rallied for six runs in the final two innings — three of them against Benson in the sixth — but it was too big a hill to climb.
“I was waiting for my moment,” Benson said. “I want to pitch in the biggest possible game for us. I like the feeling of pitching in big games, the adrenaline, all that. I feel like it helps me do better, too.”
So does facing a lineup with six lefty hitters.
“We knew Jimmy was throwing this game, so we thought that would be an advantage,” Vikings coach Pete Lotus said. “… You could tell they weren’t that comfortable, especially early on. … And Jimmy was pounding the zone. Anytime he does that, we’re going to be successful.”
Triad (34-7) has been successful all year with its lefty-heavy lineup and wasn’t going to change anything.
“Those are our guys,” Knights coach Jesse Bugger said. “We didn’t alternate lineups all year.”
Odds were Triad would face a lefty at some point, though likely not one so tall.
“He’s a little bit different being 6-8, the angles are a little bit different,” Bugger said. “He ran the two-seam in quite a bit. We struggled to adjust just a little bit, too. (But) tough matchups are going to happen at this stage.”
St. Laurence staked Benson to a 4-0 lead in the second, when Marino slapped a two-run single to right, and added four more in the fourth to go up 8-0.
“Their two-strike approach was phenomenal,” Bugger said. “We punched some guys out early … but they just kept grinding away.”
The Vikings are especially effective when they turn over the lineup from Donovan at the bottom to Marino and Mickey Lotus at the top.
“We knew that we needed a guy down there (at No. 9) that could really handle the bat and do multiple things,” Pete Lotus said. “Danny’s game is so eclectic. He can hit for average, power. He runs and then he comes through in big situations.”
“Connor just tells me, get on base, and he’ll get me over … like he did today,” Donovan said.