GRANBY – Ware needed near perfection to end the Granby baseball team’s perfect season.
Ware pitcher Keith Smith retired the first 18 Rams batters, and one perfectly executed hit and run delivered a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Granby on the road in Thursday’s Western Massachusetts Division 4 semifinals.
“I told the kids in order to beat the best team in the league and undefeated, you had to play a perfect game,” Ware coach Scott Slattery said. “To be honest with you, for the most part we did play perfect.”
No. 5 Ware will face two-time defending champion Hopkins Academy for the sectional title at 4 p.m. Monday in Hadley. It’s the program’s first sectional final appearance since winning the 2010 Division 3 title.
Smith struck out 11 Granby batters, winning a sharp pitcher’s duel with Rams junior Ryan Gaughan. There were only five hits in the game and no walks between them. Gaughan struck out 10 and posted four one-two-three innings.
“He’s done that all year. That’s why I had no problem pitching him today. He’s been great for us,” Granby coach Jim Woods said. “He’s been a gamer for us since eighth grade.”
Ware scored the game’s only run in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Dillon Slattery blooped a single over Granby’s second baseman. Then freshman catcher Dylan Sutkaitis executed a perfect hit and run, lacing an RBI double to the center field gap.
“We just had to do the little things right,” Scott Slattery said. “That was an easy run, and then we held tight and held camp.”
Granby’s offense only left the infield once in the first three innings but found some traction the second time through the lineup. Leadoff hitter Gaughan popped out to open the fourth, then Michael Toth drove the ball to left field with one out. Ware junior Tyler Orszulak snatched it from the grass sliding near the foul line. He did himself one better the next batter when Raymond Toth crushed the ball over the left field fence.
Orszulak followed it, leaping out of play and snatching the ball to prevent a home run from tying the game. Granby’s bench and coaching staff were incensed, thinking Orszulak dropped it on the other side of the fence and that it was a home run. Even Scott Slattery thought it was out. He said “OK, that’s 1-1,” in the dugout.
“That was probably the best catch I’ve ever seen in a high school game,” said Woods, who has coached Granby for two decades. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Ever. It was five feet over the fence. You have a play like that, that can change the tenor of the game.”
The bottom of Granby’s lineup struck out four of the next six at bats, but the Rams had the top of their order coming to the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Gaughan broke up Smith’s perfect game with a sharp single up the middle.
He didn’t stay on first long, as Smith picked him off with a quick move.
“Caught off guard for a little quick second,” Gaughan said. “What are you going to do about it?”
Michael Toth followed with a single to keep traffic on the basepaths. Raymond Toth struck out behind him, then Michael Toth stole second to put the tying runner in scoring position with Granby senior captain Nolan Sullivan at the plate. Ware’s outfielders were playing at the fence to prevent any fly balls, so a ground ball would have brought the run around. Sullivan struck out, and Granby’s winning streak ended at 15 games.
“We just didn’t capitalize on it,” Sullivan said.
It was Granby’s third semifinal appearance in the last four tournaments. The Rams will only graduate two starters: Sullivan and Dylan Moriarty.
“We have a lot to look forward to next year,” Gaughan said. “We should be alright.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.