Lafayette tops rival Marquette in Missouri district baseball quarterfinal
CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – PJ Rogan and Sam Williams pitched Lafayette past rival Marquette in a 3-1 Missouri Class 6 District 2 quarterfinal victory on Wednesday at Marquette.
Rogan allowed one run in five innings of work to pick up his fifth win of the season. Williams entered the game with no outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning but engineered a Houdini-like escape with no runs scoring. He tossed a scoreless seventh for his first save.
“That was probably the most fun I've ever had playing baseball," Williams said. "That was the most electric game and our whole team played well. Our defense was great. Our hitting was great. Great pitcher on the mound, Max Cohen. We were able to get him a couple of times. And yeah, it was a great game.”
The Lancers (18-12-1), the No. 5 seed in the district, had lost both meetings against the fourth-seeded Mustangs (17-11-1) during the regular season and were eliminated by their rivals in the district quarterfinals a year ago.
“I'm really happy for them, obviously with the result last year, to come back and get a win in that same game," Lafayette coach Cole DuPont said. "I've been telling them all year like we’ve played a tough schedule, we were battle tested, we played in tight games for this moment like we weren't gonna see anything in this game that we hadn't seen all year. So for them to respond in that way and actually answer the bell when those situations came up, I'm very proud of that.”
Lafayette advances to face No. 1 seed Eureka (32-3) in a district semifinal game at 1 p.m. Thursday at Vianney High School.
Here's a look at the game from photographer Nate Latsch:
Lafayette at Marquette baseball
